Wednesday, April 11, 2012

LPS: Denver-area home prices down 0.5 percent in January

According to the LPS Home Price Index for January, released Monday, the average house price in the Denver was down 0.5 percent from January 2011 to January 2012. According to the report, the average home price in the Denver area was $227,000 during January 2012, which was down slightly from $228,000 recorded during January 2011. The Denver average price was the 10th-highest average price among the 25 cities surveyed. In Denver, the average price peaked during Jun of 2007.

Nationally, the average house price fell 3.2 percent form January 2011 to January 2012, dropping to $195,000. Nationally, the average house price peaked during June of 2006.

Denver's home price was unchanged, and only four metro areas reported gains, including Cincinnati, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC. All other areas reported declines.

According to the LPs press release:

"'With proper accounting for short sales, we see two things. First, prices on normal (non-distressed) properties are doing a bit better than had been estimated before. The dramatic fall in prices after the bubble is actually closer to 26 percent, less than the 30 percent which we and others have previously reported,' said Raj Dosaj, vice president of LPS Applied Analytics. 'This is due to the fact that many of the short sales appear to be the same homes that saw significant increases in values during the bubble.'"


This report shows few surprises when compared to other home price indices such as the FHFA's report and the Case-Shiller index. The Denver area continues to show more stability in prices than most metro areas surveyed and continues to show smaller declines in prices than the nation as a whole. A lack of any change year over year is similar to the price changes shown by the Case-Shiller index and the Corelogic index. In both, prices are largely flat.

See here for the home price archives.