U.S. home prices, sales slide in 2010

U.S. home prices saw a 1.6 percent quarter-over-quarter decline in 2010, according to Clear Capital’s monthly Home Data Index Market Report, released today. But despite the negative quarterly price change, the national index shows that U.S. home prices stopped declining in early January and have posted their first uptick since mid-August 2010, with the New York-Long Island-Northern New Jersey metro market posting a 1.6 percent month-over-month gain in January, and a 3.2 percent year-over-year gain. “This recent national change in price direction is encouraging for the overall housing sector, yet it is still too early to determine whether this current uptick in home prices is a temporary reprieve or the start of a sustained recovery,” said Alex Villacorta, a senior statistician at Clear Capital. “This uptick is the first non-incentivized change in prices we’ve seen since the downturn began, and could provide great opportunity for buyers, sellers and investors alike.” Meanwhile, national sales of new homes in 2010 fell to the lowest levels in 47 years, totaling 321,000, a 14.4 percent drop from the 375,000 homes sold in 2009, according to figures released yesterday by the Department of Commerce, the fifth consecutive year that sales have declined. TRD