CoreLogic is reporting that home prices, including sales of
distressed homes, increased on both a monthly and annual basis in April. The company's Home Price Index (HPI) increased
of 2.2 percent compared to March which marked the second straight month for an
increase. Prices were 1.1 percent higher
than in April 2011, the second straight improvement for that metric as well,
the first time that has happened since June 2010.
When distressed sales, both sales of bank-owned real estate
(REO) and short sales, are excluded from the calculations, prices were up 2.6
percent compared to March and this was the third consecutive monthly increase. The annual increase for this set of figures
was 1.9 percent.
CoreLogic initiated a new measure of pricing with the April
report; a pending HPI that will project price trends. The pending HPI for April indicates another
2.0 percent increase from April to May.
This new metric is based on Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data that
measure price changes in the most recent month.
From the peak pricing seen
in April 2006, the national index for all home prices has fallen 31.7 percent. When distressed transactions are excluded, the peak-to-current change was 23.3 percent. The
greatest losses (including distressed properties) have been in Nevada (-58.9 percent), Florida (-46.5 percent),
Arizona (-46.5 percent), Michigan (-43.6 percent) and California (-41.0
percent).
The states with the greatest increase in home prices
including distressed sales were Arizona (+8.8 percent), the District of
Columbia (+6.4 percent), and Florida (+5.5 percent.) Montana and Utah each had increases of 5.4
percent.
When distressed sales were eliminated the greatest
appreciation was seen in Utah (+5.3 percent), Idaho (+5.1 percent), Mississippi
(+4.7 percent) and Louisiana and Arizona (+4.6 percent each.)
Prices are still dropping in a lot of states including
Delaware (-11.9 percent), Illinois (-6.8 percent), Alabama (-6.6 percent) and
Rhode Island (-6.2 percent). These
figures included distressed sales. When
distressed sales are not included Delaware still had a major loss of 10.1
percent followed by Rhode Island (-6.2 percent), and Alabama (-4.4 percent.)
Of the top
100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 44 are showing
year-over-year declines in April, 10 fewer than in March.
"We see the consistent
month-over-month increases within our HPI and Pending HPI as one sign that the
housing market is stabilizing," said Anand Nallathambi, president and chief
executive officer of CoreLogic. "Home prices are responding to a restricted
supply that will likely exist for some time to come-an optimistic sign for the
future of our industry."
"Excluding distressed sales, home prices in March and April
are improving at a rate not seen since late 2006 and appreciating at a faster
rate than during the tax-credit boomlet in 2010," said Mark Fleming, chief
economist for CoreLogic. "Nationally,
the supply of homes in current inventory is down to 6.5 months, a level not
seen in more than five years, in part driven by the 'locked in' position of so
many homeowners in negative equity."
