The drop in home values appears to be picking up steam. CoreLogic’s Home Price Index has recorded its third monthly drop, and the drop is getting successively steeper. The October drop year over year for national home prices was 3.93%. The decline in September was 2.43%, while the August drop was 1.08%.
CoreLogic assigns most of the blame for the decline on inclusion of distressed property in the figures. When the distressed sales are included the decline from the April 2006 peak to October 2010 is -30.2%.
Greatest depreciation in October occurred in Idaho (-15.06 percent), Alabama (-9.30 percent), Oregon (-8.50 percent), Arizona (-8.25 percent), and Florida (-8.00 percent). Greatest appreciation occurred in North Dakota (+4.61 percent), West Virginia (+3.43 percent), Vermont (+2.59 percent), Maine (+1.97 percent), and Wyoming (+1.93 percent).