CoreLogic Home Price Index Shows Increases Nationally

By admin On June 22, 2010 · Leave a Comment

MBA Staff
A report from CoreLogic, Santa Ana, Calif., showed home prices in the U.S. increased by 2.6 percent in April, the second consecutive monthly increase; and noted home prices also increased on a year-over-year basis.The CoreLogic Home Price Index said national home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 2.6 percent in April compared to a year ago, an improvement from March’s year-over-year 2.3 percent price increase. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices increased in April by 2.2 percent; an improvement over the March, which increased by 1.0 percent year-over-year.

On a month-over-month basis, the national average home price index increased by 0.8 percent in April compared to a month ago, stronger than the previous one-month increase of 0.1 percent from February to March.

“The monthly increase in the HPI shows the lingering effects of the homebuyer tax credit,” said CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming. “We expect that we will see home prices remain strong through early summer, but in the second half of the year we expect price growth to soften and possibly decline moderately.”

Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to April 2010) is -29.5 percent. Excluding distressed properties, the peak-to-current change in the HPI is -21.1 percent.

Including distressed sales, 60 of the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas increased on a year-over-year basis in April. CoreLogic said the number of areas with increasing HPI has been improving steadily since April 2009, when all of the top 100 CBSAs had falling year-over-year HPI.

At the state level, the five best states for year-over-year price appreciation excluding distressed sales were Virginia (+3.6 percent), New York (+3.7 percent), North Dakota (+6.0 percent), California (+8.4 percent) and Hawaii (+10.6 percent). When distressed sales were included, Idaho (-7.2 percent) remained in first place as the top-ranked state for annual price depreciation in April, followed by Illinois (-5.8 percent), Nevada (-4.6 percent), Maryland (-4.3 percent) and Washington (-3.7 percent). Month-over-month appreciation was positive between March and April for all of these states.

Excluding distressed sales, Nevada (-5.6 percent) was the top decliner, followed by Michigan (-4.1 percent), Arizona (-3.4 percent), Florida (-3.4 percent) and Washington (-3.1 percent).