First American CoreLogic, a member of The First American Corporation, a provider of advance property and ownership information, analytics, and services, today released its September 2008 LoanPerformance Home Price Index (HPI).
Based on First American CoreLogic’s market data, September home prices declined 11.2 percent from a year ago. And according to the company’s chief economist, Mark Fleming, a preview of October data indicates a decline of 10.5 percent. “Home prices have maintained an annualized depreciation rate of between 10 and 11 percent for eight months in a row,” Fleming said.

“Our early estimates for October sales transaction volume has declined substantially, which is not a surprise given recently released economic data and events in the credit and financial markets,” Fleming added.
For the month of September, 34 states saw annual price declines, Fleming explained. But, he said, the geographic breadth of the decline seems to have stabilized as the number of states with year-over-year depreciation has remained constant for six consecutive months now.
According to Fleming, California remains the clear leader in terms of falling property values, as prices in the state have declined 29.9 percent annually. Taking the No. 2 spot is Nevada (25 percent), followed by Arizona (21.1 percent), Florida (17.5 percent), Hawaii (14.3 percent), and Rhode Island (13.3 percent), Fleming said.
“West Virginia (5 percent) and Texas (2.1 percent) continue to exhibit the leading price increases, but even those increases have been generally decelerating in the last few months,” Fleming added.
First American CoreLogic’s LoanPerformance HPI provides monthly home price indices and median sales prices covering 7,620 ZIP codes, 958 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA), and 676 counties located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. To access the company’s full-month September through mid-month October 2008 state and top CBSA-level data, click here.