CoreLogic May 2011 Home Prices Improve

Econintersect: Corelogic’s Home Price Index improved 0.8% month-over-month in May 2011.  The release of this index follows the release of April Case-Shiller home prices earlier this week – and Econintersect did a full review of all indexes released up to that time (analysis here).

Yesterday, Econintersect reviewed data from the Mortgage Bankers Association and Altos Research (news here).

The headlines from CoreLogic:

According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 0.8 percent in May 2011 compared to April 2011, the second consecutive month-over-month increase. On a year-over-year basis, home prices declined by 7.4 percent in May 2011 compared to May 2010 after declining by 6.7 percent* in April 2011 compared to April 2010. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 0.4 percent in May 2011 compared to May 2010 and by 0.8* percent in April 2011 compared to April 2010. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

Econintersect sees no evidence to date that the seasonal increase in 2011 will exceed the 2010 season.  However, Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic stated:

Two consecutive months of month-over-month growth and continued relative strength in the non-distressed market segment are positive seasonal signs in the housing market. Slowly declining shadow inventory and stabilized negative equity levels are also positive signs. Nonetheless, the fragile economic recovery is still critical to the long-term recovery in the housing market.

Econintersect has updated its graphic on the comparative positions of the various home price indices.

click on image to enlarge

source: CoreLogic