RENO, Nev. (AP) - An analytics firm is projecting Reno and Las Vegas will be the nation's weakest housing markets for the next 12 months out of 260 metropolitan areas.

Veros Real Estate Solutions is forecasting a 12 percent median price decline in Reno for both new and existing single-family homes over that period, the biggest drop in the nation.

According to the firm's VeroFORECAST, Las Vegas came in a close
second with a projected 11 percent loss in home values over the next year.

The report used more than 50 variables, including housing supply, population trends, unemployment and inflation.

"The major trend we're seeing is that the worst appears to be over (nationwide)," said Eric Fox, Veros vice president of technology. "We're already seeing some key pockets across the country starting to wake up.

"Overall, I think we'll see a mix of some moderately strong and moderately weak markets for the next year," he added.

Kris Layman, president of the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors, criticized the report as "speculative."

A review of median price trends in the previous 18 months shows there's a chance the local market "might very well have hit bottom within the last 12 weeks," she told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Veros does not believe the Reno market has already bottomed out. But its rate of decline is a lot less than the 20 to 30 percent in previous periods, a sign that things are starting to firm up a bit, Fox said.

The other top five projected weakest markets behind Reno and Las Vegas are all in Florida, including Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

The five markets projected to be strongest are in Charleston, W.Va.; San Diego; Amarillo, Texas; Boulder, Colo.; and Beaumont, Texas.