Home price declines stabilizing: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home prices appear to be stabilizing across the country even as foreclosures mount, First American CoreLogic said in its June 2008 LoanPerformance Home Price Index (FAF.N) released on Monday.

"As of June, nominal home prices declined 10.7 percent from a year ago," Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic said in a press release.

However, while nominal home price declines have stabilized in the 10 to 11 percent range for several months, a surge in inflation means real, or inflation-adjusted, home prices are still declining at an accelerating rate, he said.

Fleming said given their home price expectations for the remainder of the year, they expect 2.7 million preforeclosure and foreclosure filings in 2008, up nearly 50 percent from 2007.

Between April and June, home price declines were flat, falling by an average of 10.8 percent, but real home price declines accelerated to 16.8 percent in June from 15.3 percent in April, he said.

"Thirty-seven states are experiencing nominal price declines, which is the same as last month," Fleming said.

California and Nevada are experiencing the largest drops, declining more than 20 percent from a year ago, while Arizona and Florida decreased more than 17 percent. Several New England and Midwestern states have declined between 9 and 13 percent during the last year, he said.

First American CoreLogic, a member of The First American Corp (FAF.N), provides residential mortgage data and analytics for the mortgage industry and Wall Street.

Although nominal prices have moderated overall, the moderation is occurring for a few select states. With the exception of Florida, the top five and bottom five states in terms of price appreciation continue to experience larger declines and smaller increases relative to the last few months, Fleming said.

(Reporting by Julie Haviv; Editing by Tom Hals)