Friday, May 25, 2012

CORRECTED 5/25: Denver home prices inch up 1.1 percent in latest LPS index

According to the LPS Home Price Index for February, released this month, the average house price in the Denver was up 1.1 percent from February 2011 to February 2012. According to the report, the average home price in the Denver area was $232,000 during February 2012, which was up slightly from $230,000 recorded during February 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 2.5 percent form February 2011 to February 2012, dropping to $195,000. Nationally, the average house price peaked during June of 2006.

Denver's home price was up, and only six other metro areas reported gains, including Cincinnati, Detroit, Honolulu, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC. All other areas reported declines.

According to the LPs press release:

"Our HPI shows an increase in seasonally adjusted prices this month for the first time since March 2010, and for only the third time in five years,” said Raj Dosaj, vice president of LPS Applied Analytics. “There have been signs of price declines slowing for a few months now, and our estimates for next month are flat to slightly positive. Without a pickup in sales volumes from their current anemic levels, it’s hard to be more optimistic that the market may be nearing the end of its fall."


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 change of 1.1 percent is similar to the February  price change shown by the Case-Shiller index (+0.5 percent) and is below the change reported for March by the Corelogic index (+3.0 percent).

See here for the home price archives.