Some new information on Arkansas home prices was released earlier this week by CoreLogic®, a data and analytics company. For the nation as a whole, the report showed an increase of 11.9% from June 2012 to June 2013. The home price index for Arkansas showed an increase of 2.2% over the same period.
The CoreLogic data also report changes in home prices after excluding so-called “distressed” sales — which include properties that have been through foreclosure and those that are exchanged in “short-sales” (in lieu of foreclosure) . After removing these homes from the sample, the rate of price appreciation nationwide was 11% year-over-year — little different from the full sample that includes distressed sales. For Arkansas, home prices excluding distressed sales were up 3.6%. The higher rate of appreciation for non-distressed sales in Arkansas suggests that foreclosures and delinquencies continue to hold down the overall rate of home price increase in the state.
The CoreLogic data also cover prices for individual metropolitan areas. As shown in the table below, rates of home price appreciation (and depreciation) vary across the state. For the 12 months ended June 2013, the highest rate of appreciation was in Jonesboro — up 6.4%. Excluding distressed sales, the Jonesboro increase was 6.1%, indicating that the impact of distressed sales in the Jonesboro market is small and/or dissipating. In contrast, prices declined by 1.2% in Texarkana, but were up by nearly 10% after excluding distressed sales from the data.
Source: CoreLogic
The data from CoreLogic track prices using a repeat-sales methodology, similar to that used by the national S&P/Case-Shiller index and the FHFA data that are routinely tracked here on the Arkansas Economist. Although accessibility of the CoreLogic data is not as extensive as the FHFA data, the CoreLogic data provide up-to-date snapshots of home price appreciation and are unique in their attention to the effects of distressed sales on overall home prices. FHFA data on home prices in the second quarter of 2013 will be released on August 22. It will be interesting to see how those data compare to the information from the CoreLogic indices.
