Home Prices Fall for Fourth Month in a Row

(LoanRateUpdate.com)

CoreLogic released its November Home Price Index yesterday which showed that home prices continued to tumble for the fourth month in a row in year over year sales. Home prices for November 2010 were down 5.07 percent compared to November 2009. The decline was slightly greater than the 3.35 percent annual decline reported for October.


Excluding foreclosures and other distressed housing sales, the annual decline in prices was 2.21 in November 2010 and 2.24 percent in October, with the latter revised upward from a 1.5 percent annual decline reported last month.

“We’re continuing to see the influence of seasonal declines that typically depress home prices during the latter part of the year, but the fact that the rate of decline increased for November is indicative of the uphill battle we’re facing with the housing recovery,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

Additional information in the report included:

- Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: Maine (+8.58 percent), North Dakota (+4.41 percent), Wyoming (+3.67 percent), New York (+2.07 percent) and Vermont (+1.78 percent).

- Including distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Idaho (-13.56 percent), Alabama (-11.18 percent), Arizona (-10.38 percent), Oregon (-9.26 percent) and Mississippi (-8.37 percent).

- Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: Wyoming (+6.47 percent), North Dakota (+4.91 percent), Maine (+4.46 percent), New York (+3.96 percent), and District of Columbia (+3.54 percent).

- Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Idaho (-10.42 percent), Alabama (-7.82 percent), Arizona (-7.81 percent), Nevada (-6.13 percent) and Washington (-6.05 percent).

- Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to November 2010) was -30 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -21.7 percent.

And for you history buffs…home values during the Great Depression years, 1928 through 1933, declined 25.9 percent.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the value of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has dropped by $80 million, or nearly 25 percent since the peak of the housing boom. Its current value is $251.6 million, down from $331.5 million according to Zillow.com.

Sign of the times…

Tags: home prices, corelogic, distressed sales, highest appreciation, highest depreciation, hpi, distressed transactions, white house, housing boom, housing bust