National quarter-over-quarter home prices have declined for the third consecutive month in the Home Data Market Index Report by Clear Capital.
In March, the national home price decreased by 1.4%, which is a 0.2% improvement from last month’s report.
“Despite distressed inventory pressure and traditional winter inactivity, current trends are continuing to show a softening of price declines,” said Alex Villacorta, director of research and analytics at Clear Capital. “The 3.9% quarterly decline we observed in December has given way to moderating declines with the national price index now down only 1.4%, suggesting a leveling of prices is on track for spring.”
The latest report revealed that home prices are flattening throughout the country except for the West. Home prices in the West region saw a quarter-over-quarter decline of 4.5%, led by a 13.4% yearly price change in Tucson, Ariz.
Out of the 15 lowest-performing major markets, eight are located in the West. Five of these cities, including Tucson, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Sacramento and Fresno, Calif., have REO saturation rates above 42% and more than half the homes sold in Las Vegas are bank owned.
Driven by heavily distressed markets in Arizona and Nevada, Clear Capital said the West region is expected to set new double-dip price lows as early as next month.
The only low-performing markets that experienced small improvements in their quarter-over-quarter gains in this month’s report were Phoenix, San Francisco and Richmond, Va.
For the highest performing markets, quarter-over-quarter prices improved for 12 out of the 15 cities. Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Jacksonville saw quarterly declines and Miami experienced a negative price change of 0.1%.
Since 2009 when the absolute lows of the housing crash were taking place, Clear Capital reports that national home prices have increased 4.2%. Villacorta said this trend shows that the housing market has the ability to recover, but not as easily as the rest of the economy.
“This is a sign that long-term gains can be realized amidst the volatile behavior of the last two years,” Villacorta said.
“Yet, when comparing this growth to other economic indicators over the same time period, it is clear that the housing market still has a long way to go toward a sustained recovery.”
