12-Month Home Price Index (Single-Family Homes)

Source: First American LoanPerformance HPI

To get a true idea of median sales prices, it is best to turn to an index that tracks repeat sales transactions. An example is The First American LoanPerformance Home Price Index (HPI). This index is generally considered to be the most comprehensive in the industry and includes more than 30 years of repeat sales transactions in 7,376 zip codes.

According to the LoanPerformance HPI released last week, property values have fallen considerably in many areas of the country in the last 12 months. Housing markets in certain states were hit particularly hard, with some zip codes seeing declines in excess of 20 percent.

'This latest home price index confirms that property values in key mortgage markets like California, Nevada, Florida, and Arizona continue to exhibit on-going declines,' said Damien Weldon, vice president of collateral and prepayment analytics for First American LoanPerformance.

Weldon went on to say that Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix were the leading downward markets. Other key mortgage markets that experienced significant declines were Cape Coral (-9.72%), Washington D.C. (-7.20%) and Boston (-4.07%).