NEW YORK - February 14, 2011 - Few believed the housing market here would ever collapse. Now they wonder if it will ever stop slumping.

The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the sduthwest is delivering a new wave of distress to communities once thought to be immune: economically diversified cities where the boom was relatively restrained.

In the last year, home prices in Seattle had a bigger decline than in Las Vegas. Minneapolis dropped more than Miami, and Atlanta fared worse than Phoenix.

Economists say the bubble markets where builders, buyers and banks ran wild began falling first, so they are close to the end of the cycle and in some cases on the rise. Nearly everyone else still has another season of pain.

“When I go out and talk to people around town, they say, ‘Wow, I thought we were going to have a 12% correction and call it a day,’” said Stan Humphries, chief economist for the housing site Zillow, which is based in Seattle. “But this thing just keeps on going.”

Seattle is down about 31% from its mid-2007 peak and, according to Zillow’s calculations, still has as much as 10% more to fall.

Humphries estimates the rest of the country will drop a further 5-7% as last year’s tax credits for home buyers continue to wear off.

“We went into 2010 feeling gangbusters, thanks to Uncle Sam,” said Humphries. “We ended it feeling penniless, with home values tanking.”