Core Logic: DC Home Prices Rise 6.4% Over April 2011

The latest CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI®) -- reporting data through April 2012 -- was released Tuesday, June 5.  The top five states with the highest appreciation in sales prices included Washington, DC with an increase of 6.4% over April 2011.

A few points on the CoreLogic research methodology:

• Results reflect repeat sales of existing single-family attached and single-family detached homes only.
• New home builder sales are not included in the analysis.
• CoreLogic excludes condos and coops from review.

For a more detailed discussion of differences in research methodologies and resultant statistics take a look at my recent blog post How to Evaluate Housing Reports.

District of Columbia

Numbers for the District of Columbia alone show home prices for all sales -- including distressed properties -- rose over April 2011.  Apparently, local prices for short sales and foreclosures are rising.

• DC home prices rose 6.4% over last year -- including distressed sales.
• Prices increased 4.1% over last year -- excluding distressed home sales.

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria
DC-VA-MD-WV

Key figures for the Washington "Core Based Statistical Area" -- which includes the District, Arlington, Alexandria, and parts of Maryland and West Virginia -- show distressed properties (i.e. foreclosures and short sales) putting a drag on overall home price increases.

• Home prices increased 3.1% over April 2011 -- excluding distressed home sales.
• Prices are up 2.8% -- including distressed home sales.

Nationwide

Nationally the numbers show home price declines with distressed properties plunging the country's numbers lower.

• Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 1.1% in April 2012 compared to April 2011. This was the second consecutive year-over-year increase this year, and the first time two consecutive increases have occurred since June 2010.

• On a month-over-month basis, home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 2.2% in April 2012. This marks the second consecutive month-over-month increase this year.

• Excluding distressed sales, prices increased 2.6% in April 2012 compared to March 2012, the third month-over-month increase in a row.

• Year-over-year prices, excluding distressed sales, rose by 1.9% in April 2012 compared to April 2011.

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Methodology

The CoreLogic HPI provides a multi-tier market evaluation based on price, time between sales, property type, loan type and distressed sales. The CoreLogic HPI is a repeat-sales index that tracks increases and decreases in sales prices for the same homes over time, including single-family attached and single-family detached homes, which provides a more accurate "constant-quality" view of pricing trends than basing analysis on all home sales.

About CoreLogic

CoreLogic is a leading provider of consumer, financial and property information, analytics and services to business and government.  More than one million users rely on CoreLogic to assess risk, support underwriting, investment and marketing decisions, prevent fraud, and improve business performance in their daily operations. The Company, headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif., has approximately 5,000 employees globally. For more information visit www.corelogic.com.

Read the CoreLogic April HDI press release.

Read the full Home Data Index report.