Home values nationwide showed minimal monthly appreciation in August, according to the Zillow Real Estate Market Report.
The Zillow Home Value Index increased 0.1 percent from July to August. On a year-over-year basis home values declined 4.5 percent to $172,600. National home values have fallen 28.3 percent since they peaked in June 2006.
In the Boston metropolitan statistical area (MSA), Zillow calculated an average home value of $316,200, down 0.1 percent from last month and 3 percent from a year ago. Zillow said Boston-area home values have fallen 20.6 percent from their peak.
Regionally, 68 of the 157 MSAs covered by Zillow experienced monthly home value appreciation, though minimal in many areas. Most notably, two of the hardest hit markets, Detroit and Fort Myers, Fla., have now seen five and nine consecutive months of appreciation, respectively. Seventy-four markets saw home value depreciation and 15 markets, including Los Angeles, Dallas and Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fla., remained flat.
The foreclosure liquidation rate, which measures the number of homes lost to the bank, stayed steady at around 9.2 out of every 10,000 homes foreclosed in August. This is down from the rate of 10.9 out of every 10,000 homes in October 2010, before the robo-signing lawsuits slowed the pace of foreclosures in most states. However, foreclosure liquidations remained high in many of the hardest hit metros in California, Nevada, and Arizona. In Las Vegas and Phoenix more than 30 out of every 10,000 homes were liquidated in August.
"Due to the robo-signing controversy, the pace of foreclosure liquidations has been slower than it would be otherwise, which is impacting home value trends positively. Eventually the pace will pick up again, putting more bank-owned homes into local markets and putting additional downward pressure on prices," said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries. "We remain encouraged about the organic stabilization in home values that we have been seeing absent the federal home buyer tax credits, but we remain concerned about the impact that recent economic turmoil and continued weak economic indicators will have on future home sales and home value trends."
The Zillow Home Value Index is the median "Zestimate" valuation for a given geographic area on a given day and includes the value of all single-family residences, condominiums and cooperatives, regardless of whether they sold within a given period. The Home Value Index at the national level is calculated using a weighted average of the median home value for each county and includes data from 440 metropolitan statistical areas. It is expressed in dollars and is for a particular geographic region.
