January 2010 Numbers Yield First National Year-Over-Year Home Price Increase Since Late 2006

Real estate data provider Clear Capital announced national quarterly gains are achieved for the eighth straight month, pushing the yearly home price increase to 2.3%, while three of the four U.S. regions maintain positive quarter-over-quarter price returns.

With the latest numbers in, national home prices continued to experience quarterly gains this month (1.8%), and for the first time in 37 months, posted national year-over-year gains of 2.3 percent. Regionally, quarterly price change gains include:

- Midwest (5.0%)
- South (1.5%)
- West (1.3%)
- Northeast (-1.0 %)

Severely distressed Detroit, Mich. led all markets once again, maintaining a 14.6 percent quarterly price change. Nine of the fifteen highest performing major markets saw quarterly prices improve over last month, and yearly price changes for all the highest performing markets improved by an average of 6.1 percent.

According to Clear Capital, the sustainability of current price gains will be challenged in 2010, given that most lenders and analysts predict a significantly larger number of real-estate-owned properties will reach the markets. Also, as the dynamics of supply and demand evolve, different markets will have varied responses.