PROVIDENCE – An nationwide index of home sale prices showed that the Providence metropolitan area performed well in comparison with the rest of the country over the past year.
The Home Data Index, part of the Market Report released Thursday by Clear Capital, a real estate data tracker, said home prices in the four months ended March 31 increased 17.3 percent over the period comprising December 2008, and January and February 2009. That performance compares with a national increase of 5.1 percent for the same period and an increase in the Northeast region of 2.1 percent. The index showed a year-over-year increase of 12.8 percent in the Midwest, 3.4 percent in the South and 2.6 percent in the West.
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Despite the yearly price gains, more recent time periods showed price declines. The Providence-New Bedford-Fall River metro area registered a price decline of 0.9 percent for the four months ending March 31 when compared with the three months prior to that period. (Clear Capital calls this comparison “quarter over quarter” and said it adds the additional month to smooth out the data.) That decline still put the Providence area among the best metros in the country, however, placing it 15th in the ranking of the nation’s 362 MSAs.
Clear Capital ranked the San Jose, Calif., area as the fastest-growing market, with a quarter-over-quarter gain of 1.9 percent. At the bottom of the list was Oklahoma City, where prices dropped 5.7 percent.
Nationally, Clear Capital said homes prices fell 3.9 percent in quarter-over-quarter comparisons. Prices in the Northeast fell 3.5 percent, in the Midwest 6.7 percent, in the West 1.3 percent and in the South 3.6 percent.
“At the national level we are now seeing a return to quarterly price declines after nine months of quarterly gains,” said Clear Capital Senior Statistician Alex Villacorta. “Although yearly price changes remain positive compared to last winter’s lows, the most recent declines reflect the fragile and volatile state of many housing markets and could signal a trend to renewed lows off last year’s levels for several markets.”
The report also showed that the Providence metro area was not among the leaders for the percentage of bank-owned home sales, with 19.2 percent considered “REO” sales.
Additional information is available at clearcapital.com.
