The report from residential valuation provider Integrated Asset Services, shows prices fell 0.5% in July and said it was part of a seasonal adjustment while predicting that prices are likely to go up and down as the market moves towards recovery.
‘We are seeing normal seasonality with a slight July pullback, but we are not out of the weeds yet as we will see waves of volatility while the markets correct themselves and settle down,’ said president and CEO Dave McCarthy.
‘Meanwhile, there’s an awful lot going on down at the neighborhood level that will take time to normalize at the top,’ he added.
Worst hit was the Las Vegas metropolitan area where prices plunged 4.8% in July, the largest monthly percentage drop to date.
Prices in the Denver and San Francisco areas fell 3.8% in July. Denver had previously remained stable since the beginning of 2009, while San Francisco had jumped nearly 8% since February, according to the IAS research.
‘A lot of this volatility has to reflect Washington’s near-term influence on price behaviour through actions like the foreclosure moratorium. We’re already seeing buying activity moving around in different price segments,’ explained McCarthy.
The index, which tracks the monthly change in median sales prices of single-family houses across the US, found prices remained up in many areas considered wealthy such as Howard County in Maryland where prices were up 4.4% in July.
From a regional perspective the Midwest fared best in July, gaining 0.2% over June. The South posted a 0.2% decline, followed by a 0.6% slip in the Northeast and a 1.2% decline in the West.
