BP Plc’s oil spill may drive down the Gulf Coast’s shore-area property values by 10 percent for at least three years, according to CoStar Group Inc. Losses may total $4.3 billion along the 600-mile (966- kilometer) stretch from the Louisiana bayous to Clearwater, Florida, the property-information service estimates. ‘It’s just another blow to an already depressed real estate market, Norm Miller, CoStar’s vice president of analytics, said yesterday in a telephone interview from San Diego. ‘The best thing you can do if you’re in real estate in this area is bide your time, don’t panic and don’t try to sell in this environment. Falling real-estate values are one consequence of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history as oil keeps gushing from a BP well once pumped by the Deepwater Horizon rig. An April 20 explosion there killed 11 workers. Oil washing ashore will further harm property values in an area where Moody’s Economy.com estimates prices fell as much as 34 percent from the peak of the U.S. residential real estate market in 2006. The median U.S. home price was $173,100 in April, down 25 percent from July 2006, according to the Chicago-based National Association of […]