1. Home Price Monitor
January 2012
National Association of REALTORS®
Research Division
Cutting Through the Noise: Various Home Price Measure

2. Highlights
• On a month-to-month basis home prices rose slightly in November as measured by
NAR, FHFA, and CoreLogic’s distressed-excluded measure. Declines in November
were measured by Case Shiller and CoreLogic’s full market index. On a year over
year basis, small declines persist across measures in November within the range that
has been typical of recent months.
• NAR data show a monthly increase for December and suggest that the decline
from December one year ago is smaller than in the 2 previous months.
• New home prices continue to fluctuate greatly due to low levels of construction
and purchase activity.
• Distressed sales, which hold back existing home prices, comprised 32 percent
of sales in a recent survey of Realtors—down from nearly 40 percent a year
ago but slightly above the recently typical 30 percent mark. The seasonal
slowdown in sales may explain the increase in distressed sales as a share of total
sales even as the number of distressed sales remains largely constant.
• The increase in the share of distressed sales may lower reported transaction
prices somewhat—especially as seen in the Case-Shiller and CoreLogic indexes.

3. Outlook
• From a broad perspective, many of the same trends continue to dominate the
outlook. Low inventories, declining delinquency rates, and stable or increasing
foot traffic should help to support prices, though buyers searching for the
right home may have fewer options from which to choose. Very limited new
construction means that buyers initially searching for a new home may find
more selection among existing homes.
• Client pricing expectations may continue to present challenges. Data from the
Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers show that sellers typically sold their
homes for 95% of the listing price, and 61% reduced the asking price at least
once.
• Affordability remains high and job hiring data is showing signs of
improvement. An improving economy coupled with affordability could
provide a needed jolt to primary residence sales. In fact, blue-chip economists
believe that a technical bottom to the market is at hand.

4. Home Prices
$280,000 280.00
$260,000 260.00
$240,000 240.00
$220,000 220.00
$200,000 200.00
$180,000 180.00
$160,000 160.00
$140,000 140.00
$120,000 120.00
$100,000 100.00
May-05
May-02
May-03
May-04
May-06
May-07
May-08
May-09
May-10
May-11
Aug-02
Aug-03
Aug-04
Aug-05
Aug-06
Aug-07
Aug-08
Aug-09
Aug-10
Aug-11
Nov-11
Feb-03
Nov-01
Nov-02
Nov-03
Nov-04
Nov-05
Nov-06
Nov-07
Nov-08
Nov-09
Nov-10
Feb-02
Feb-04
Feb-05
Feb-06
Feb-07
Feb-08
Feb-09
Feb-10
Feb-11
NAR Median Sales Price: Total Existing Homes, United States ($)
New 1-Family Houses: Median Sales Price (Dollars)
FHFA House Price Index: Purchase Only, United States (NSA, Jan-91=100)
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index: Composite 20 (NSA, Jan-00=100)
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index: Composite 10 (NSA, Jan-00=100)
CoreLogic National House Price Index (NSA, Jan.2000=100)
Sources: NAR, Case-Shiller, CoreLogic, FHFA, Census, HAVER

5. Home Price Data – Year over Year Change
25
20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
May-02
May-03
May-04
May-05
May-06
May-07
Aug-07
May-08
May-09
May-10
May-11
Aug-02
Aug-03
Aug-04
Aug-05
Aug-06
Aug-08
Aug-09
Aug-10
Aug-11
Nov-01
Nov-02
Nov-03
Feb-04
Nov-04
Nov-05
Nov-06
Nov-07
Nov-08
Nov-09
Nov-10
Feb-11
Nov-11
Feb-02
Feb-03
Feb-05
Feb-06
Feb-07
Feb-08
Feb-09
Feb-10
NAR Median Sales Price: Total Existing Homes, United States ($)
New 1-Family Houses: Median Sales Price (Dollars)
FHFA House Price Index: Purchase Only, United States (NSA, Jan-91=100)
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index: Composite 20 (NSA, Jan-00=100)
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index: Composite 10 (NSA, Jan-00=100)
CoreLogic National House Price Index (NSA, Jan.2000=100)
Sources: NAR, Case-Shiller, CoreLogic, FHFA, Census, HAVER

6. Home Price Changes
Nov-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Dec-11 Next
Monthly Annual Monthly Annual Release
Data Series Change* Change* Change* Change* Date
NAR Median Sales Price: Total Existing Homes 2.0% -3.6% 0.3% -2.5% 22-Feb
NAR Median Sales Price: Existing 1-Family Homes 1.8% -4.0% 0.7% -2.5% 22-Feb
FHFA House Price Index: Purchase Only 0.8% -1.8% -- -- 23-Feb
S&P/Case-Shiller HPI: Composite 20 -1.3% -3.7% -- -- 28-Feb
S&P/Case-Shiller HPI: Composite 10 -1.3% -3.6% -- -- 28-Feb
CoreLogic National HPI -1.4% -4.3% -- -- Mid-Feb
CoreLogic National HPI - Distressed Excluded 0.2% -0.6% -- -- Mid-Feb
New 1-Family Houses: Median Sales Price -2.4% -1.8% -2.5% -12.8% 16-Feb
*All data are not seasonally adjusted. Monthly changes should typically be computed only for
Seasonally Adjusted (SA) data. Because these change rates are often covered in the media
regardless of their suitability for analysis, they are presented here but should be used with
caution. Annual (yr-over-yr) changes computed for Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) data give a
measure that is not affected by seasonal fluctuations.
Sources: NAR, Case-Shiller, CoreLogic, FHFA, Census, HAVER

7. Spread of Existing Home Price Changes
Year over Year
10.00
5.00
0.00
-5.00
-10.00
-15.00
-20.00
-25.00
Sources: NAR, Case-Shiller, CoreLogic, FHFA, HAVER

8. Supply and Demand Factors – Inventory
4,500,000 14.0
NAR Total Existing Homes Avail for Sale at
EOP, United States (Units, NSA) (left axis)
4,000,000
12.0
3,500,000
10.0
3,000,000
2,500,000 8.0
2,000,000 6.0
NAR Months' Supply of Total Existing Homes,
1,500,000 United States (Months) (right axis)
4.0
1,000,000
2.0
500,000
0 0.0
NAR Total Existing Homes Avail for Sale at EOP, United States (Units, NSA)
NAR Months' Supply of Total Existing Homes, United States (Months)
Sources: NAR

9. Supply – New Housing Starts and Permits
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Housing Starts: 1 Unit (SAAR, Thous.Units) Housing Units Authorized: 1-Unit Structures (SAAR, Thous.Units)
Sources: Census

10. Underlying Demand – Job Growth and Hires
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
-1,000
-2,000
Change in Total Nonfarm Employment (SA, Thous) JOLTS: Hires: Total (SA, Thous)
Sources: BLS

11. Potential Job Growth – Openings
5,000
JOLTS: Job Openings: Total (SA, Thous)
4,500
4,000
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
Sources: BLS

12. Housing Affordability
25 250.0
20 NAR Housing Affordability Index: Composite 200.0
(right axis)
NAR Payment as Percent of Income
(left axis)
15 150.0
10 100.0
5 50.0
0 0.0
NAR Housing Affordability: Payment as Percent of Income, U.S. (%)
NAR Housing Affordability Index: Composite (Fixed + ARM), United States
Sources: NAR

13. About the Price Data Series
Data Series Strengths/Weaknesses of Data Series
NAR Median Sales Price: Total Existing Homes Most timely Data, broad geographic coverage, sourced from MLS and Realtor® board
NAR Median Sales Price: Existing 1-Family Homes data, data in dollars, total exisiting includes condos and coops
Weighted Repeat Sales (WRS) Index, sourced from Fannie/Freddie purchase &
FHFA House Price Index: Purchase Only refinance mortgages (excludes FHA, VA, Jumbo, Subprime)
S&P/Case-Shiller HPI: Composite 20 WRS Index, sourced from County recorder data, weighted by property value;
quarterly national index (not shown), monthly 10 and 20-city metro indexes and
S&P/Case-Shiller HPI: Composite 10 composites are 3 month moving averages
CoreLogic National HPI Weighted Repeat Sales Index, sourced from database of loan servicing and County
CoreLogic National HPI - Distressed Excluded recorder data
New 1-Family Houses: Median Sales Price Based on home builder interviews in the Survey of Construction
Sources: NAR, Case-Shiller, CoreLogic, FHFA, Census, HAVER