Henry Has It

including segments from Inman News

"The continued bright spot is the non-distressed segment of the market, which is only marginally lower than a year ago and continues to exhibit relative strength."

If someone were to tell you that home values were lower this year than they were last year, it would only surprise the small percentage of humanity that live in caves. But what may surprise you is the value INCREASE (that's not a typo) that is happening as a result of lowering home inventory. This is not to say we're out in the clear, but the following research does offer some light at the end of the tunnel.

It's not shocking to hear that, overall, prices have dropped 30.5 percent since an April 2006 peak, according to CoreLogic. When distressed sales (bank-owned homes and short sales) are excluded, the drop from peak stood at 21 percent in August. But it is interesting to note that Pittsburgh experienced year-over-year value appreciation: 2.8 percent. That metro continues to see its index value remain essentially flat from 2006 to now, falling only 0.8 percent. (Again, not the end of economic turmoil but encouraging)

Altos' 10-city national composite highlighted Salt Lake City with the largest price change from August, an increase of 1.7 percent.

Unsold inventory in the 10-city composite fell in every market, declining 1.9 percent overall from August and 2.3 percent from July.

The rate at which homes were foreclosed in August was only 9.2 out of every 10,000 homes, a decline from October 2010. "Due to the robo-signing controversy, the pace of foreclosure liquidations has been slower than it would be otherwise, which is impacting home-value trends positively." said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist, in a statement.

"We remain encouraged about the organic stabilization in home values that we have been seeing absent the federal homebuyer tax credits, but we remain concerned about the impact that recent economic turmoil and continued weak economic indicators will have on future home sales and home-value trends.

According to CoreLogic's price index, home prices fell a slight 0.7 percent year-over-year in August when distressed sales are excluded. "The continued bright spot is the non-distressed segment of the market, which is only marginally lower than a year ago and continues to exhibit relative strength," said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic's chief economist, in a statement.

"The mass liquidation of foreclosure portfolios is best described as a trickle. The inventory is coming on the market slowly as more loans are modified to keep homeowners in their homes. Although the millions of properties in the shadow inventory are still looming, there is nothing that indicates a flood of foreclosures hitting the market anytime soon," the report said.

See full article featured in Inman News, "Foreclosure slowdown stabilizes real estate values"

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