NAR Research’s Home Price Monitor Series reviews national home prices by examining several widely cited national measurements. It is released monthly and allows REALTORS® to gain insight into the recent performance of national prices, factors affecting that performance, and the likely direction of prices in the months ahead. The Home Price Monitor includes the same data covered in the national media that clients will expect their REALTORS® to know and be able to comment on and provides different, more complete coverage of the information all in one place. Today’s blog post focuses on the recent release of the FHFA Price Index.

• For the first time since 2007, home prices measured by the government price index put out by FHFA that uses Fannie and Freddie loan data on home purchases increased in the year from February 2011 to February 2012.
• Monthly data from the same source showed that prices were up 0.3 percent nationally from January to February.
• Regionally, year over year prices showed growth in the Mountain, West South Central, East South Central, New England, and South Atlantic divisions. Small declines – less than 1 percent – were seen in other divisions. (For states by region, see the full FHFA report here.)
• One other notable observation, the FHFA house price index does NOT exclude distressed properties from evaluation. Other research has shown that distressed properties typically sell at a discount, and data series that attempt to exclude distressed sales tend to show better price performance.
• Get more information on other house price measures from NAR’s House Price Monitor here .

• Foot traffic and future home sales have a strong correlation.  SentriLock, LLC. provides NAR Research with monthly data on the number of showings.
• Foot traffic in the area covered by the Scenic Coast Association of REALTORS®, Inc. (CA) for March jumped 24% compared to a year earlier.
• That year-over-year gain reversed the 2% year-over-year decline registered in February.
• Foot traffic in this area was strong last spring, but surged in late summer, the typical pattern for this market.  This trend would mark an early and more balance sales path for the year.
• For more information on this data and its use, see the economist’s commentary, “Foot Traffic – Getting a Step Ahead”.

In response to guidance from four federal agencies, Citigroup reclassified $840 million in home equity loans as “nonaccruing” in the first quarter because the first mortgages are more than 90 days delinquent.

To get a head start on the national mortgage servicing settlement, the third-biggest U.S. bank also wrote down $370 million worth of mortgages and released about $350 million in loan reserves to account for principal forgiveness.

Source: “Citi Reclassifies Some Mortgages, Starts Taking Principal Writedowns,” American Banker (March 17, 2012)