"There may be reason to be cautiously optimistic, since we've seen now seen three consecutive months of minor appreciation,” notes Kyle Lundstedt, managing director of LPS Applied Analytics. “LPS tracks 130 million properties in its data, and over the last several months we've seen a very typical seasonal change in the mix of the houses selling towards the higher end of the price spectrum.”
S&P Case Shiller, which comes out with its April report next Tuesday, also uses repeat sales. It is a three month running average which does include sale prices of distressed properties. That’s why that report is showing prices still down around 2.5 percent nationally.
As we’ve noted so many times on the Realty Check, while this housing crash was national, the recovery is increasingly local. Home price recovery will vary state to state, city to city and even neighborhood to neighborhood, depending on employment, the overhang of distressed homes, and the overall confidence of local homeowners and potential buyers.
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