According to a report issued by First American CoreLogic, Inc. based upon their LoanPerformance HP(#1) home price data for February 2009, national housing prices have declined for 24 consecutive months to a level equal to 2004 prices.
CoreLogic reported:
• National housing prices fell 12.2 percent in February from a year ago.
• The depth and breadth of price declines continued to worsen in February
• Nevada (-26.7%) was the top ranked state for price depreciation, followed very closely by California (-26.5%), Arizona (-21.1%), Florida (-19.7%) and Rhode Island (-19.5%).
• Although price declines are beginning to stabilize for the very high depreciation markets, the price trends among a next tier of state that are experiencing double digit declines is worsening. These states include Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, Massachusetts and Virginia.
• Since U.S. home prices peaked in July 2006, they have declined 22.7 percent on a cumulative basis and are currently down to the lowest price level in more than five years.
Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic, Inc. said “More than one-fifth of U.S. housing wealth has vanished and home prices continue to decline. Decreases are now being driven by rising unemployment and a high volume of distressed home sales. Given that home prices are generally a lagging indicator of market health, we believe the largest declines have already taken place, but we expect home prices to continue to decline into 2010 as economic conditions and excess housing inventories dampen prices.”
It is important to note the market may be nearing bottom and the worst is behind is in terms of price depreciation, he is predicting prices will continue to fall into 2010.
#1The First American CoreLogic LoanPerformance HPI incorporates more than 30 years worth of repeat sales transactions, representing more than 45 million observations sourced from First American CoreLogic’s industry-leading property information database. LoanPerformance HPI provides a multi-tier market evaluation based on price, time between sales, property type and loan type (conforming vs. nonconforming). The LoanPerformance HPI is a repeat-sales index that tracks increases and decreases in sales prices for the same homes over time, which provides a more accurate “constant-quality” view of pricing trends than basing analysis on all home sales. The LoanPerformance HPI provides the most comprehensive set of monthly home price indices and median sales prices available covering 7,660 ZIP codes, 958 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA) and 676 counties located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
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