CoreLogic: House Prices declined 1.9% in October

Notes: CoreLogic reports the year-over-year change. The headline for this post is for the change from September to October 2010. The CoreLogic HPI is a three month weighted average of August, September and October, and is not seasonally adjusted (NSA).

From CoreLogic: Home Price Index Shows Decline for Third Straight Month, October Home Prices Declined 3.93 Percent Year Over Year

CoreLogic ... today released today released its October Home Price Index (HPI) which shows that home prices in the U.S. declined for the third month in a row. According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed sales, declined by 3.93 percent in October 2010 compared to October 2009 and declined by 2.43 percent* in September 2010 compared to September 2009. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 1.5 percent in October 2010 compared to October 2009. ...

“We are continuing to see the weakness in home prices without artificial government support in the form of tax credits. The stubborn unemployment levels and seasonality are also coming into play,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “When you combine these factors with high shadow and visible inventories, the prospect for a housing recovery in early 2011 is fading.”

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

This graph shows the national CoreLogic HPI data since 1976. January 2000 = 100.

The index is down 3.93% over the last year, and off 30.2% from the peak.

The index is 2.2% above the low set in March 2009, and I expect to see a new post-bubble low for this index - possibly as early as next month or maybe in early 2011.