Home selling prices reached an average value of $208,000 in January, up a slight 0.3% from December and 6.7% from year ago levels, Lender Processing Services said in its latest Home Price Index.
Despite price gains, the average home price is still 21.4% below peak levels set several years back. Yet, housing analysts have routinely said the previous peak was not necessarily a norm for the housing market.
LPS gathers its data by analyzing 15,500 zip codes and studying real estate transactions. The LPS HPI only reflects the price of non-distressed transactions by eliminating the influence of REOs and short sales.
Warm weather states fared better than some populated East Coast states in terms of monthly home price growth in January.
Prices in January rose 0.7% and 0.4%, respectively, month-over-month in California and Florida, while falling 0.2% and 0.4% in New York and New Jersey.
Prices rose the most from December to January in Georgia, where prices rose 1.6%. Yet values fell the most in Connecticut dropping 0.9% month-over-month.
Home prices in Atlanta rose 1.7% overall.
Meanwhile, New Haven, Conn., experienced the steepest average price drop of 1.3% from December to January.
Arizona recorded the largest year-over-year gains among the 20 largest states, with home values rising 16.8% from 2012.
The Phoenix market alone experienced 20.6% year-over-year home price growth, followed closely by Las Vegas, which experienced a 19.1% surge in home values.
