U.S. Home Prices Increased in April, Says CoreLogic

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According to CoreLogic's (NYSE: CLGX) latest Home Price Index (HPI), home prices in the U.S. increased in April, the second consecutive monthly increase.

According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 2.6 percent in April 2010 compared to April 2009. This was an improvement over March's year-over-year price increase of 2.3 percent. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices increased in April by 2.2 percent; an improvement over the March non-distressed HPI which increased by 1.0 percent** year-over-year.

On a month-over-month basis, the national average home price index increased by 0.8 percent in April 2010 compared to March 2010, which was stronger than the previous one-month increase of 0.1 percent from February 2010 to March 2010.

Highlights as of April 2010

• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to April 2010) is -29.5 percent. Excluding distressed properties, the peak-to-current change in the HPI is -21.1 percent.

• Including distressed sales, 60 of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) increased on a year-over-year basis in April.  The number of CBSAs with increasing HPI has been improving steadily since April 2009 when all of the top 100 CBSAs had falling year-over-year HPI.

• The five best states for year-over-year price appreciation excluding distressed sales are Virginia (+3.6 percent), New York (+3.7 percent), North Dakota (+6.0 percent), California (+8.4 percent), and Hawaii (+10.6 percent).

• When distressed sales were included, Idaho (-7.2 percent) remained in first place as the top-ranked state for annual price depreciation in April, followed by Illinois (-5.8 percent), Nevada (-4.6 percent), Maryland (-4.3 percent) and Washington (-3.7 percent).  Month-over-month appreciation was positive between March and April for all of these states.

• Excluding distressed sales, the worst five states for year-over-year price declines changes slightly.  Nevada (-5.6 percent) was the top decliner, followed by Michigan (-4.1 percent), Arizona (-3.4 percent), Florida (-3.4 percent) and Washington (-3.1 percent).

"The monthly increase in the HPI shows the lingering effects of the homebuyer tax credit," said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. "We expect that we will see home prices remain strong through early summer, but in the second half of the year we expect price growth to soften and possibly decline moderately."

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