Monday, 2 July 2012

CoreLogic Home Price Index Rises in May

CoreLogic released its Home Price Index (HPI) report today for May, with the following positive news about the U.S. real estate market:

"Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 2.0 percent in May 2012 compared to May 2011 (see red line in chart above). On a month-over-month basis, home prices, including distressed sales, also increased by 1.8 percent in May 2012 compared to April 2012. The May 2012 figures mark the third consecutive increase in home prices nationwide on both a year-over-year and month-over-month basis.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationwide increased on a year-over-year basis by 2.7 percent in May 2012 compared to May 2011, see blue line in chart. [MP: This is the largest annual increase since late 2006.] On a month-over-month basis excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 2.3 percent in May 2012 compared to April 2012, the fourth month-over-month increase in a row. 

The CoreLogic Pending HPI indicates that house prices, including distressed sales, will rise by at least another 1.4 percent from May 2012 to June 2012. Excluding distressed sales, house prices are also poised to rise by 2.0 percent during that same time period. The CoreLogic Pending HPI is a new and exclusive metric that was introduced within the April 2012 HPI report. It provides the most current indication of trends in home prices, and is based on Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data that measure price changes in the most recent month.

“The recent upward trend in U.S. home prices is an encouraging signal that we may be seeing a bottoming of the housing down cycle,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and chief executive officer of CoreLogic. “Tighter inventory is contributing to broad, but modest, price gains nationwide and more significant gains in the harder-hit markets, like Phoenix.”

“Home price appreciation in the lower-priced segment of the market is rebounding more quickly than in the upper end,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Home prices below 75 percent of the national median increased 5.7 percent from a year ago, compared to only a 1.8 percent increase for prices 125 percent or more of the median.”

MP: The home price increases reported today by CoreLogic for May and the last several months are consistent with the gains in the FHFA House Price Index (HPI), featured last Thursday on CD.  The FHFA's HPI increased by 3% in May from a year earlier, which was the third straight monthly increase, and the largest year-over-year gain since November 2006.  Slowly but surely, the U.S. housing market is making a comeback, with more evidence today of rising home prices in May according to CoreLogic's HPI.  

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