Home Prices Off Nearly 12 Percent in June, Index Says

U.S. home prices in June showed a seasonal bump of 1.1 percent, but remain 11.5 percent below year-ago levels, according to data released Tuesday morning by Integrated Asset Services LLC, a Denver-based default management and collateral valuation specialist. The company’s IAS360 house price index found while that three of four U.S. census regions experienced appreciation month-over-month in June, all posted yearly declines in price; like other repeat-sales home price indexes, including the S&P/Case-Shiller, the IAS360 data is not seasonally-adjusted and captures seasonal variability in pricing trends. “Typically, small month-to-month appreciation is present in the summer due to increased seasonal housing demand,” said Integrated Asset Services CEO David McCarthy, in a press statement. “Therefore, strengthening of the market in the summer can occur even when the longer term market trend might be downward.” In other words: while month-to-month variations can be instructive, the annual trends are usually more telling. Accordingly, out of the nine census divisions the IAS360 HPI reports on, only three posted declines during the month of June. Conversely, however, every census division experienced substantial year-over-year declines except for the East North Central division, which continued to appreciate at an annualized rate of 0.5 percent. Local trends remain mixed Some interesting local trends are perhaps emerging, however, looking in more depth at the IAS360 dataset; especially in some of the hardest-hit areas. Las Vegas, which saw prices fall by .2 percent between May and June of last year, saw prices rise 2.1 percent month-to-month this year; a similar trend played out in San Diego, which saw prices fall .5 percent last year but saw prices rebound 4.2 percent between May and June of this year. (Of course, annual pricing trends in both areas remain strongly negative, with IAS360 data showing San Diego off 19 percent). But in other hard-hit areas, the monthly trends have reversed course for the worse: Los Angeles County, which has seen pricing fall 21.4 percent in the past year, posted a 2.7 percent drop in prices between May and June alone; that monthly drop compared to a .6 percent monthly gain in the year-ago period. San Francisco saw prices fall 3.8 percent in June, compared to May’s HPI reading; one year ago, the monthly pricing trend in the area was up .3 percent. “Depending on the neighborhood, we are seeing everything from strong and stable markets to barebones housing markets,” McCarthy said. For more information, visit http://www.iasreo.com.