First American CoreLogic released its latest housing price index values for January on Friday, which found that housing prices continued to drop steeply in key areas throughout the United States. “Twenty-eight states now show year-over-year real estate declines according to this latest LoanPerformance HPI release,” said Damien Weldon, vice president, collateral and prepayment analytics for First American CoreLogic. “However, on a quarter-over-quarter basis, there are now thirty-six states with decreasing property values.”
The illustration to the right illustrates the quarterly price performance for each state. Las Vegas and Cleveland, OH posted the worst price performance over the three month period from November to January, according to the Loan Performance data; Sin City registered a 7.34 percent decline in housing prices, while Cleveland saw prices fall 7.5 percent. Both represent an interesting contrast in the nature of the problems now confronting the U.S. housing market: one was a strong center for housing speculation during the recent boom, while the other has been dealing with the effects of a long-weakened local economy. On an annual basis, some of the hardest hit areas include Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario, Calif. (-19.95 percent) and Cape Coral/Fort Myers, Florida (-17.76 perecent). Numerous major markets in California are into double-digit negative price performance as well, CoreLogic said — places like Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego. Despite the generally gloomy performance nationally, a few areas posted both quarterly and annual pricing gains, CoreLogic said. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Austin areas in Texas both posted positive performance. The DFW area saw prices remain flat through February, but up 3.71 percent on an annual comparison basis; Austin saw prices increase 1.2 percent, yielding a 7.7 percent price increase year-over-year. For more information, visit http://www.loanperformance.com.
