Home Price Decrease Slows as Summer Arrives

By Kyle Chezum Updated on 6/9/2011

 

Home prices are beginning to improve in parts of the nation.  This news may come as a surprise, considering all the talk from economists and news outlets in recent weeks of the supposed upcoming double dip.  Clear Capital, a real estate data firm, reported that home prices had declined just 2.3% during the month of May, a slow drop compared to declines in earlier months.

In the Midwest, May saw a decrease in home prices of about 4.9%.  In the South, the price decrease was just 1.8%.  The West saw a drop of 1.6% and the Northeast saw a decrease of a meager 1%.  More notably, seven major metropolitan areas actually saw tiny price increases during the month, including Washington DC, central California, and Miami, among others.

Clear Capital had this to say about the information included in the report.  "The softening of price declines suggests prices are stabilizing as the typically stronger summer buying season approaches.  Based on historical patterns, the non-REO segment increases its share of total sales volume in the spring and summer months."  Spring this year didn't bring many additional home sales, but perhaps this means more homebuyers are holding out for summer.

At this point, it's impossible to know whether summer home sales will increase enough to reach historical averages, but looking over the historically low spring sales numbers, it's easy to guess that they won't.  But time will tell.