Home Prices Rise Overall, but Some Areas Seeing Sharp Declines

Home prices rose again nationally inrnSeptember Lender Processing Services (LPS) said today, but in many areas,rnnotably a lot of the older mill towns in the Northeast, prices are stillrndeclining, in some cases sharply.  LPS’s HomernPrice Index (HPI) was up 0.2 percent from August to $232,000 and has risen 8.2rnpercent since the beginning of the year and 9.0 percent since September 2012.  </p

Nationally the HPI has climbed back tornwithin 14.1 percent of the peak level reached in June of 2006 when the indexrnwas at $270,000.  In many states however,rnsuch as Florida (-35.1 percent) and even, despite its recent unprecedented gains,rnCalifornia (-25.3 percent) prices have far from fully recovered.  </p

LPS derives its data from residentialrnreal estate transactions and its own property and loan-level data bases.  The HPI is the result of a repeat salesrnanalysis representing the price of non-distressed properties by taking intornaccount price discounts for bank-owned real estate and short sales.</p

Five states had increases in their HPIrnof half a percent or more from August to September, Nevada was up 0.8 percent,rnGeorgia and South Carolina increased by 0.7 percent and both Florida andrnIllinois were up 0.5 percent.  The largestrnmonth-over-month declines were in Connecticut (-0.9 percent), New Hampshirern(-0.6 percent), Massachusetts (-0.5 percent) and Colorado and Pennsylvania eachrnof which declined 0.4 percent.  </p

Colorado along with Texas established<bnew peak prices in July but while Texas has gone on to even higher HPI levelsrnand established another peak in September, Colorado has declined every monthrnsince.  The state is now down 0.7 percentrnfrom its recent peak. </p

The biggest price gains among metropolitanrnareas were almost all in the south.  MyrtlernBeach, South Carolina gained 1 percentage point in September followed by CharlestonrnSouth Carolina, Atlanta, and Miami with 9 percent increases.  There were five metro areas that were up 0.8rnpercent, Naples, Florida, Reno and Las Vegas, Ocean Pines, Maryland; and KeyrnWest. Austin, Texas gained 0.6 percent and established a new peak price at $241,000.</p

The big losers were mostly in NewrnEngland.  Torrington (-1.0 percent),rnBridgeport (-0.9 percent), and Norwich (-0.9 percent), Connecticut were followedrnby Springfield, Massachusetts and New Haven, down 0.8 percent.  York, Pennsylvania and Kennewick, Washington,rndown 0.7 percent.   Worcester, Massachusetts and Manchester, NewrnHampshire each lost 0.6 percent in value from September.  Denver, which had, along with Colorado, set arnnew peak in July is now off that peak by 0.8 percent after falling half a pointrnin September.

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