Home prices fell 1.1% in September from the prior month and the outlook for the coming winter months – when sales tend to slow – are anything but positive, according to a new report from CoreLogic.
The firm's monthly house price index – which includes both foreclosure and short sales – fell 4.1% from September 2010.
"Distressed sales remain a significant share of the homes that do sell and are driving home prices overall," said CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming.
Excluding distressed sales, the CoreLogic HPI is down 1.1% from a year ago.
The Wells Fargo economics group expects foreclosures will account for a larger portion of sales in the next several months, pulling prices even lower.
"The expected renewed slide in home price measures will almost entirely reflect changes in the composition of home sales, not further declines in individual home prices," according to the Wells Fargo Home Data Wrap-Up issued on Oct. 31.
"Prices of homes that are not at risk of facing foreclosures have been essentially unchanged and should decline only modestly, if at all, over the next six to nine months," said Wells Fargo senior economist Mark Vitner.
