Despite a declining share of short sales and REO sales, and a seasonal increase in non-distressed transactions, ""CoreLogic"":http://www.corelogic.com says home prices in June came in 6.8 percent below June 2010.
[IMAGE]Even with fewer distressed properties changing hands, short sale and REO transactions are weighing heavy on the overall market numbers. The extent of their impact is made clear in CoreLogic's report.
The company's data show that when distressed sales are excluded from the equation, the year-over-year price decline narrows to 1.1 percent when comparing June 2011 to June 2010 numbers.
""While there is a consistent and sustained seasonal improvement in prices over the last three months, prices are lower than a year ago,"" said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.
Fleming says much of the decline can be attributed to the lingering effects of the federal homebuyer tax credits,
[COLUMN_BREAK]which helped to boost prices during the first half of the year and sent them plummeting after the credits expired.
But Fleming is quick to add that the market data indicates the price declines have been more concentrated in the distressed sales market.
While the annual rate of decline is certainly troubling, CoreLogic reports that home prices in the U.S. edged up in June from the previous month, marking the third consecutive monthly increase the company has recorded.
CoreLogic’s national home price index posted a 0.7 percent increase in June from May’s reading.
Home prices have risen on a monthly basis since April by CoreLogic’s measurement. It’s the first sequential gain for the index in a year, but typical of the pattern seen during the summer homebuying seasons.
CoreLogic’s ""dataset of index results"":http://www.corelogic.com/about-us/researchtrends/asset_upload_file479_8532.pdf is littered with minus signs from April 2006 on, save for the occasional spurt of gains seen April to August 2009, March to June 2010, and now April to June 2011.
Most market analysts are expecting the numbers to continue to follow historical trends and begin to head south again later in the year.
According to CoreLogic’s latest report, the only five states to report price appreciation from June 2010 to June 2011 were: New York (+3.3 percent), the District of Columbia (+2.4 percent), North Dakota (+1.2 percent), Alaska (+0.1 percent), and Nebraska (+0.1 percent).
The five states with the greatest annual depreciation in June were: Nevada (-12.4 percent), Idaho (-12.3 percent), Arizona (-12.3 percent), Illinois (-12.2 percent), and Minnesota (-9.6 percent).