Tag Archives: Clear Capital

The warm weather homebuying season has kept prices moving up, but Clear Capital says the rate of appreciation is already slowing and weak consumer confidence points to a stormy rest of the year. The company's latest report shows that home prices rose 4 percent over the four-month period ending in August when compared to the previous three months. But Clear Capital notes the recent gains have not been enough to recoup longer-term declines, with national home prices still more than 6 percent below last year's levels.

A study released by Clear Capital Thursday reveals home prices continue to correct from winter's extended declines, edging up on the increase in sales activity that comes with warmer weather. But even recent gains off the record low experienced earlier this year have not been enough to change the broader housing picture, Clear Capital says. Its latest reading of national home prices shows an annual decline of 7.9 percent, with only a handful of markets in the Northeast bucking the trend.

Data released by Clear Capital Friday show home prices at the national level posted their first quarterly gain in June after nine months of declines. The company says the 0.9 percent increase is an encouraging sign that the markets are capable of positive price growth despite continued economic and foreclosure pressures. But even with the second-quarter uptick, U.S. home prices lost 3.2 percent during the first half of 2011, and Clear Capital is forecasting another 2.4 percent drop for the second half of the year.

Clear Capital sees signs of market stability as we move into the summer months. New data released Thursday by the company shows that U.S. home prices continue to fall, but the 2.3 percent drop recorded for the three months ending in May was half the decline seen in the previous month's report. Clear Capital says the median price paid for distressed properties has started to rise, indicating the REO market is seeing increased activity toward the upper end of the price range and helping to rein in the depreciating trend of the past several months.

While a number of closely-watched home price indices show national readings have slipped into a double-dip, Altos Research says it's come and gone. The firm notes that the latest Case-Shiller findings declaring a new post-recession low are based on data through the end of March. Since that time, Altos has recorded a steady uptick in prices for both major metros and mid-city markets across the country. The firm expects to see a rising and falling pattern for several years and believes the double-dip is really just the start of the next housing cycle.

The market has been battered by reports of continuing home price depreciation with both the Clear Capital and S&P/Case-Shiller indices confirming that national readings have fallen below the double-dip mark. But data released Wednesday by CoreLogic provided a flicker of improvement - at least from the short-term view. The company says its index shows home prices in the U.S. rose 0.7 percent between March and April. It's the first such increase since the homebuyer tax credit expired in mid-2010, and that reading includes distressed sales.

The national home price index from Clear Capital has officially entered double-dip territory. The company says data through the end of April has pushed its reading of national home prices 0.7 percent below the prior low recorded in March 2009, as markets have become saturated with bank-owned properties. Clear Capital's report shows prices have fallen 11.5 percent over the previous nine-month period. A rate of decline this rapid has not been seen since 2008.

Clear Capital has released its new Property Condition Inspection (PCI) tool. The new product provides a property's physical condition and characteristics, supplementing automated valuation models (AVMs) in accordance with new requirements from the Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines (IAG) issued by federal regulators.

Clear Capital reports home prices in the western part of the country are sliding again, down 4.3 percent over the first three months of this year. The company says the West region, taken on the whole, has now officially entered double-dip territory, with home values hitting lows not seen since 2001. Across the rest of the U.S., though, Clear Capital says negative forecasts have been ""overstated,"" as prices in the other three regions have managed to find a bottom in the midst of ongoing foreclosure pressures and the traditionally slow winter season.

New data from Clear Capital indicates that the slow-down in foreclosure activity may be having a positive effect on property values in some parts of the country. However the company's report states that despite a national trend toward flattening of home prices, the western United States is dragging down encouraging developments in other regions, with the West expected to set new double dip price lows as early as next month should the trend continue.