Climb in U.S. House Prices Pauses in July

[Erik Keith]

Integrated Asset Services®, LLC (IAS®) (www.iasreo.com), a leader in default management and residential collateral valuations, today released the latest IAS360™ House Price Index (HPI). Based on the timeliest and most granular data available in the industry, the index for national house prices was down 0.5% in July. The slight decline marked the first down month for the IAS360 since February. The leading U.S. housing benchmark remains ahead fractionally for the year but still well off (-16.2%) its high in June 2007. “We are seeing normal seasonality with a slight July pullback, but we are not out of the weeds yet as we will see waves of volatility while the markets correct themselves and settle down,” said Dave McCarthy, President and CEO of Integrated Asset Services. “Meanwhile, there’s an awful lot going on down at the neighborhood level that will take time to normalize at the top.” Conspicuous among the nation’s 10 major metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) were the 3.8% declines in both Denver, which had been reliably stable since the first of the year, and San Francisco, which had jumped almost 8.0% from February. Notable, too, was a sizable 4.8% drop for the month in Las Vegas. While the region has fallen month over month since August of 2006, July’s plunge represents the largest percentage drop to date. “A lot of this volatility has to reflect Washington's near-term influence on price behavior through actions like the foreclosure moratorium,” says McCarthy. “We’re already seeing buying activity moving around in different price segments. The beauty of the IAS360 is that the index captures and reports on these changes in a way that reveals the reality of the market.” The IAS360 House Price Index is a comprehensive housing index tracking monthly change in the median sales price of detached single-family residences across the U.S. The index, based on all arms-length transactions, tracks data for 15,000 neighborhoods, that roll up to report on the changes in 360 counties, nine census divisions, four regions, and the nation overall. The IAS360 House Price Index is delivered on a monthly basis.