U.S. home prices posted a 3.5% quarter-over-quarter increase, softening from 4% growth in September’s report, Clear Capital said in its most recent data release. Year over year, prices overall are down 3.8% with Clear Capital predicting a further decline of 1.6% over the final quarter of 2011 and down an additional 3.2% in the first quarter of 2012.
The drop could signal a triple-dip in home prices, Clear Capital said, putting home values closer to where they were in the first quarter of 2011, which is the lowest since the downturn started.
“The September home price measures show continued slowing of the price gains we’ve seen this year, especially across the spring and summer months,“ said Dr. Alex Villacorta, director of research and analytics at Clear Capital. “The housing market has yet to demonstrate the fundamentals necessary to overcome a seasonal slowdown over the next six months, which drives our projected 3.2% drop in national home prices through the first quarter of 2012.”
Regionally, the Midwest leads the nation with a quarter-over-quarter gain of 7.2%, Clear Capital reports, followed by the Northeast, with a 3.5% increase, the South, seeing a rise of 3.2% and the West, with a mere 0.3% quarterly gain.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
