CoreLogic home price index finally ticks up

Home prices in the U.S. increased on a month-to-month basis by 0.7 percent between March and April, the first such increase since the home-buyer tax credit expired in mid-2010, according to CoreLogic’s April Home Price Index (HPI).

“While the economic recovery is still fragile and one data point is not a trend, the month-over-month increase based on April sales activity is a positive sign,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “This is the first month-over-month increase in the HPI since government support for home buying was removed, and it provides reason for cautious optimism.”

However, national home prices are still 7.5 percent lower than a year ago, according to Santa Ana, California-based CoreLogic, a provider of consumer, financial and property analytics.