National HPI for June- Home Prices Down 7.8% vs. 2008

Year-Over-Year and Seasonal Comparisons Seen as Positives

National housing prices fell 7.8 percent in June 2009 compared to June 2008 representing the smallest year-over-year decline recorded to date in 2009, according to newly released data from First American CoreLogic and its LoanPerformance Home Price Index (HPI). June’s decline was a 0.7-percent improvement over the 8.5 percent decline in May*.

Month-over-month declines have been moderating in the first half of 2009. Between January and June 2009 home prices improved by 3.3 percent. This is the first time in four years that the spring and summer seasonal price trend exhibited its normal pattern.
The seasonal improvement in home prices in the first half of 2009 is a positive sign, but it is important to note that a decline in distressed sales, rather than an increase in traditional home sales prices, was responsible for the uptick.
Nevada (-25.4 percent) remained the top-ranked state for annual price depreciation barely edging out Florida (-25.1 percent), which, unlike other hard hit states, is experiencing worsening price declines in 2009. California (-17.0 percent) continued to improve in June and its depreciation rate is the lowest since October 2007. Arizona (-16.2 percent) and Illinois (-14.8 percent) round out the top five states for price declines. More than 15.2 million U.S. mortgages, or 32.2 percent of all mortgaged properties, were in negative equity position as of June 2009. June’s negative equity share was slightly lower than the 32.5 percent as of the end of March 2009, and it reflects the recent stabilization of home prices. The aggregate property value for loans in a negative equity position was $3.4 trillion, which represents the total property value at risk of default. Full negative equity data is available at http://www.loanperformance.com/loanperformance_hpi.aspx#NegEqReport

Salem
www.loansmodification.com
updated 8/24/09