CoreLogic released its April CoreLogic HPI report. Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 12.1 percent on a year-over-year basis in April 2013 compared to April 2012. This change represents the biggest year-over-year increase since February 2006 and the 14th consecutive monthly increase in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, including distressed sales, home prices increased by 3.2 percent in April 2013 compared to March 2013*.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices increased on a year-over-year basis by 11.9 percent in April 2013 compared to April 2012. On a month-over-month basis, excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 3 percent in April 2013 compared to March 2013. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

The CoreLogic Pending HPI indicates that May 2013 home prices, including distressed sales, are expected to rise by 12.5 percent on a year-over-year basis from May 2012 and rise by 2.7 percent on a month-over-month basis from April 2013. Excluding distressed sales, May 2013 home prices are poised to rise 13.2 percent year over year from May 2012 and by 3.1 percent month over month from April 2013. The CoreLogic Pending HPI is a proprietary and exclusive metric that provides the most current indication of trends in home prices. It is based on Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data that measure price changes for the most recent month.

“House price growth continues to surprise to the upside with an impressive 12.1 percent gain year over year in April,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Increasing demand for new and existing homes, coupled with low inventory, has created a virtuous cycle for price gains, most clearly seen in the Western states with year-over-year gains of 20 percent or more.”

“The pace of the housing market recovery quickened in April as home prices rose across the U.S.,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and chief executive officer of CoreLogic. “For the second consecutive month, all 50 states registered year-over-year home price gains excluding sales of distressed homes. We expect this trend to continue, bolstered by tight supplies and pent up buyer demand.”

Highlights as of April 2013:

• Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were:  Nevada (24.6 percent), California (19.4 percent), Arizona (17.3 percent), Hawaii (17 percent) and Oregon (15.5 percent).

• Including distressed sales, this month only two states posted home price depreciation:  Mississippi (1.7) and Alabama (1.6 percent).

• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: Nevada (22.6 percent), California (18.3 percent), Idaho (16.4 percent), Arizona (15.3 percent) and Washington (13.9 percent).

• Excluding distressed sales, no states posted home price depreciation in April.

• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to April 2013) was a 22.4 percent decrease. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was a 16.3 percent decrease.

• The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were Nevada (47.3 percent), Florida (40.5 percent), Michigan (36.1 percent), Arizona (36 percent) and Rhode Island (34.7 percent).
• Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 94 were showing year-over-year increases in April, the same as in March 2013.  

*March data was revised. Revisions with public records data are standard, and to ensure accuracy, CoreLogic incorporates the newly released public data to provide updated results.