LPS: Home Prices Up Slightly in August, Detroit Leads the Way

Home prices rose 0.2 percent in August compared to July on the Home Price Index (HPI) produced by Lender Processing Services (LPS).  The LPS HPI is a repeat sales analysis of home prices as of their transaction dates based on the company's property and loan-level databases.   In its model the price of non-distressed sales takes into account price discounts for REO and short sales.

The HPI for August was $205,000, up from $204,000 in July and 2.6 percent above the $199,000 level of August 2011.  The index value is now 23 percent below the peak price of $266,000 reached in June 2006.

The largest increase among the states was Minnesota where the HPI was up 1.2 percent closely followed by Michigan with a 1.1 percent change, Maryland (0.8 percent), and the District of Colombia (+0.7 percent).   Four states, Iowa, Indiana, New York and Wisconsin had increases of 0.6 percent and the other two states in the top ten, Arizona and Ohio, each were up 0.5 percent.  States with the largest negative changes were Rhode Island (-0.6 percent), Oregon and Tennessee (-0.4 percent), Connecticut (-0.3 percent), Vermont and Washington (-0.2 percent) and New Mexico, New Jersey, and Massachusetts (-01 percent).  

Detroit and Minneapolis had the greatest price increases among metropolitan areas,1.4 and 1.2 percent respectively, while Visalia, California; Salem and Eugene, Oregon; and Chattanooga, Tennessee were tied at -0.7 percent for the largest negative change.