Twenty-eight metro areas saw double-digit drops in median house prices in the 12 months ending in March, according to the National Association of Realtors. Three areas had double-digit price increases.

If anyone believed that capital cities, with their steady government jobs, were immune from housing busts, that illusion was shattered with this report. Sacramento, capital of California, reported the nation's biggest decrease in the median price in percentage terms. In the first three months of this year, half the houses sold in Sacramento cost $258,500 or more; in the first quarter of 2007, the median price had been $365,300. That represents a year-over-year drop of 29.2 percent.

Eight metro areas saw year-over-year price declines of more than 20 percent: Sacramento (29.2 percent); Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif. (27.7 percent); Lansing, Mich. (26.9 percent); San Diego (22.9 percent); Sarasota, Fla. (22.2 percent); Los Angeles (21.3 percent); Grand Rapids, Mich. (20.7 percent) and Las Vegas (20.2 percent).

The Michigan cities of Detroit and Kalamazoo did not report first-quarter price data. If they had, they probably would have reported double-digit percentage losses, too. Prices in Saginaw, Mich., dropped about 25 percent compared with the second quarter of 2007; price information was unavailable for the first quarter of 2007.

Besides Sacramento and Lansing, other capitals on the double-digit-decline list include Phoenix (15.4 percent); Washington, D.C. (13.1 percent); Jackson, Miss. (13 percent), and Minneapolis-St. Paul (10.2 percent).

Nationally, the median house price fell 7.7 percent, from $212,600 in the first quarter of 2007 to $196,300 in the first quarter of this year. The Northeast region had the only price gain, of 3.2 percent. Median prices fell 12.3 percent in the West, by 7.9 percent in the Midwest, and by 7.5 percent in the South.