Black Knight: Home Prices Up 1% in March Just 12.8% Off 2006 Peak

Home prices in the United States are just 12.8% off the 2006 peak, according to the comprehensive March home price index report from Black Knight Financial Services.

The index found that home prices of all types rose an average 1% from February to March, and up 7% year-over-year.

The Black Knight HPI combines the company’s extensive property and loan-level databases to produce a repeat sales analysis of home prices as of their transaction dates every month for each of more than 18,500 U.S. ZIP codes.

According to the data, Michigan and Washington, D.C., lead in monthly price gains, while Connecticut is the only state to register a monthly decline.

Notably, seven of the 40 largest metro areas hit new peaks in March.

This coincides with the release Tuesday of the April existing data from S&P/Case-Shiller, which found slight increases for the month. The 10-city and 20-city composites recorded miniscule rises for March 2014, increasing .8% and .9% month-over-month.

For the first quarter, home price increases remained weak.

Despite a weak start to real estate transactions in the first quarter, home prices continued to trend higher and increased for the eleventh consecutive quarter, rising 1.3% in the first quarter of 2014, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index released on Tuesday as well.

Compared to last year, house prices escalated 6.6% from the first quarter 2013 to the first quarter 2014. The FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up .7% from February.