U.S. home prices show slight uptick for third straight month

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U.S. home prices are incrementally increasing, but that appears to be a seasonal shift as prices remain far below levels of a year ago. According to the June Home Price Index released today by analytics firm CoreLogic, nationwide single-family housing prices gained 0.7 percent in June compared to May, marking the third consecutive month-over-month gain in prices.

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But prices are still down 6.8 percent from June 2010, an even worse decline than the 6.7 percent experienced from May 2010 to May 2011. That suggests the increase is almost entirely due to seasonality. “While there is a consistent and sustained seasonal improvement in prices over the last three months,” said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist, “prices are lower than a year ago due to the decline in prices after the expiration of the tax credit last year.”

The New York-White Plains-Wayne NY/NJ market performed best in CoreLogic’s report, as prices increased 2 percent year-over-year. Of major metropolis markets, Washington, D.C. was the only other one to show a price increase, at 0.4 percent. New York was also the best performing state in the report as prices rose 3.3 percent over the prior year. — Adam Fusfeld