by Calculated Risk on 3/07/2012 11:23:00 AM

Notes: The timing of different house prices indexes can be a little confusing. LPS uses December closings - other indexes usually report sales recorded in a month, and there is frequently a lag between closings and recording - so this is closer to what other indexes report for January (without the weighting of several months).

From LPS: LPS HPI Shows U.S. Home Prices Accelerated Decline to 1.0 Percent in Dec.; Early Data Suggests 1.2 Percent Drop in Jan. Likely

The LPS HPI national average home price for transactions during December 2011 reached a price level not seen since September 2002. This is the sixth consecutive month of price decreases.
...
Price changes were largely consistent across the country during December, increasing in only 8.0 percent of the ZIP codes in the LPS HPI. Price changes were also consistent across price tiers with a uniform decline of 1.0 percent.

... Of the 411 MSAs the LPS HPI covers, average prices declined for all of the MSAs (374) in 44 states. In addition, while average prices did not decline for all MSAs in the remaining states, prices fell in a total of 402 MSAs out of the LPS HPI 411.

This is a 3.9% year-over-year change for this index, and LPS expects that the year-over-year change in January will be smaller (around 3.6%)

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph from LPS shows the HPI since January 1995.

The index was down 1.0% in December, and is down 3.9% over the last year.

The index is off 31% from the peak - and is now at a new post-bubble low.