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Home prices nationally, in Pennsylvania and at the regional level dipped in January, when compared month-to-month and year-to-year.
The data was included in a report released Thursday by CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, Calif.-based provider of information, analytics and business services.
Home prices in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market declined by 11.13 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010. They declined by 15.60 percent in December 2010 compared to December 2009 when distressed sales were included. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.
Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 1.47 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010 and declined by 3.13 percent in December 2010 compared to December 2009.
In its January Home Price Index report, prices in the U.S. declined for the sixth month in a row.
Mark Fleming, chief economist with CoreLogic, said, “A number of factors continue to dampen any recovery in the housing market. Negative equity, which limits the mobility of homeowners, weak demand and the overhang of shadow inventory all continue to exert downward pressure on housing prices. We are looking out for renewed demand in the coming months as the spring buying season gets underway to hopefully reduce the downward pressure.”
According to the CoreLogic Home Price Index report for January, national home prices, including distressed sales, declined by 5.7 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010 after declining by 4.7 percent in December 2010 compared to December 2009.
Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 1.6 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010 and by 3.2 percent in December 2010 compared to December 2009.
Nationally, only five states had positive home price appreciations when including distressed sales figures: West Virginia (+5.5 percent), North Dakota (+3.3 percent), New York (+1.9 percent), Hawaii (+0.7 percent) and Wyoming (+0.2 percent). Pennsylvania ranked 13th nationally, falling 3.1 percent.