Home Prices in March Show Monthly Gain but Yearly Loss: CoreLogic

When including distressed sales, home prices rose month-over-month by the same percentage point as they dropped year-over-year. ""CoreLogic"":http://www.corelogic.com/ reported Tuesday in its March Home Price Index (HPI) that compared to a year ago, prices declined 0.6 percent in March, while prices rose 0.6 percent compared to the month before in February. The monthly gain when including distressed sales is the first time since July 2011.

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Distressed sales include short sales and REO transactions.

When excluding distressed sales, month-over-month prices went up for the third consecutive month, while year-over-year prices increased by 0.9 percent in March 2012 compared to the same month a year ago, according to CoreLogic's HPI.

Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, explained why the stabilization in prices this spring is different from previous years.

""Although this has been the case in each of the last two years, the difference this year is that stabilization is occurring without the support of tax credits and in spite of a declining share of REO sales,"" said Fleming.

Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 57 saw year-over-year price declines in March, which is eight fewer compared to February.

The CBSAs that saw the great drop in value when including distressed sales were Chicago, Illinois (-8.8 percent); Atlanta, Georgia (-8.1 percent); and Riverside, California (-3.2 percent).

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The CBSAs with the greatest increase in value were Phoenix, Arizona (+7.7 percent); New York (+2 percent), and Dallas, Texas (+1.1 percent).

When excluding distressed sales, the CBSAs with the great decrease in prices were the same, with Chicago seeing a decrease of 2.7 percent, Atlanta 2.1 percent, and Riverside 1.2 percent. When looking at CBSAs with an increase in value after excluding distressed sales, the order was Houston, Texas (4.1 percent), with both Dallas and Phoenix closed behind at 4 percent.

When including distressed sales, the five states that experienced the greatest increase in home prices were Wyoming (+5.9 percent), West Virginia (+5.3 percent), Arizona (+5.1 percent), North Dakota (+4.7 percent) and Florida (+4.5 percent).

The five states with the greatest depreciation when including distressed sales were Delaware (-10.6 percent), Illinois (-8.3 percent), Alabama (-8.0 percent), Georgia (-7.3 percent) and Nevada (-5.8 percent).

When excluding distressed sales, Idaho took the lead at 5.4 percent, closely followed by North Dakota (+5.1 percent), South Carolina (+4.7 percent), Montana (+3.5 percent), and Kansas (+3.4 percent).

States that had the greatest decrease in value when excluding distressed sales were Delaware (-7.6 percent), Alabama (-4.1 percent), Nevada (-3.9 percent), Vermont (-3.9 percent) and Rhode Island (-2.9 percent).

Even with price gains above 5 percent for leading states and CBSAs, Capital Economics said in response to the CoreLogic report that over the year, prices are more likely to stabilize rather than make a dramatic climb.

""There are fears in some quarters, triggered by recent disappointing GDP and payrolls data, of a sharp slowdown in economic growth which could derail the fledgling improvement in the housing market,"" said Paul Diggle, property economist for Capital Economics. ""While we do not expect the economy to be strong enough to generate rapid house price gains, we do think that prices are either very close to, or already through, their trough.""