Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. home prices fell 3.4 percent in October from a year earlier as sales of foreclosed properties dragged down values, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.
The decline was led by an 8.1 percent slump in the region that includes Nevada and Arizona, the agency said today in a report from Washington. Prices decreased 5.7 percent in the area that includes Mississippi and dropped 5.6 percent in California and other West Coast states.
Foreclosures reduce real estate values because they sell at cut-rate prices. U.S. homes in the default process sold for about 32 percent less than non-distressed properties in the third quarter, the biggest discount in five years, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based data seller.
Home prices rose 0.7 percent from September, the FHFA said. Economists projected a 0.2 percent decline from the prior month, according to the median of 13 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Today’s FHFA report is based on repeat sales data that compares prices of the same properties over time. The regulatory agency, which measures sales of homes with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, doesn’t provide a specific price.
As measured by the National Association of Realtors in Chicago, the median home price was $170,500 in October, the period covered by the government report.
The median price in November increased to $170,600, the Realtors group said in a separate report today.
