Slide in U.S. Home Prices Slows in March

DENVER, CO -- Integrated Asset Services, LLC, a leading provider of end-to-end mortgage services solutions, today released its latest IAS360™ House Price Index. Based on the timeliest and most granular data available in the industry, the benchmark index showed national house prices falling another 1.0% in March.

The March numbers come on top of a 3.0% drop in February and a 3.5% plunge in January, the index's worst single-month decline ever. On a year-over-year basis, U.S. house prices are now down 13.9%, with a full 10.7% coming since September when the economy began unwinding. IAS360 reports prices down 17.7 % from the height of the real estate bubble in 2006.

At the U.S. Census region levels, declines in house prices correlated to initial unemployment claims in the respective areas. Of the four regions, IAS360 reported the Midwest region falling the most in March, with a 2.5% drop for the month. At the same time, the Labor of Bureau Statistics reported the region registering the highest number of initial unemployment claims (81,957) for the same period. Among the other regions, house prices fell 1.3% in the South, 0.8% in the West, and remained unchanged in the Northeast, which also reported the smallest number of initial jobless claims.

"There was at least some leveling off in house prices for March but it's too soon to call it a rebound in the housing market," said Dave McCarthy, President and CEO of Integrated Asset Services. "We'll keep looking at prices at the county level to see if there's any cumulative light emerging at the end of the tunnel."

Among metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), IAS360 reports that five out of ten largest MSAs in the U.S. are down 20% or more since the housing market crashed in December 2006. San Francisco, the country's hardest hit MSA, fell another 3.1% in March, mostly the result of Alameda County, which declined 10.6%. IAS360's unique granular data showed that two counties in the San Francisco MSA -- Contra Costa and Marin -- appreciated for the period gaining 1.7% and 0.6% respectively. Las Vegas, the nation's second most distressed MSA, was down 2.7%. Los Angeles, meanwhile, appeared as one of the few bright spots anywhere, with house prices gaining 0.2% for the month, the first time this MSA has seen an increase since April 2008. Inside the region, IAS360 shows Orange County declining 3.2% while Los Angeles County rose 1.1%.

The IAS360 House Price Index is a comprehensive housing index tracking monthly change in the median sales price of detached single-family residences across the U.S. The index, based on all arms-length transactions, tracks data of 15,000 "neighborhoods," which are rolled up to report on the changes in 360 counties, nine census divisions, four regions, and the nation overall. The IAS360 House Price Index is delivered on a monthly basis.