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Home prices fell year-over-year by 2.1 percent in 2011 but at the slightest clip unseen since 2006, with forecasts for a welcome appreciation on the way in 2012, according to ""Clear Capital"":http://www.clearcapital.com/company/MarketReport.cfm?month=January&year=2012.
[IMAGE]The real estate research organization offered up the numbers in a Home Data Index Market Report it releases monthly.
What do the numbers say? Home prices sagged in early 2011 but lifted as the market underwent some stabilization and more bank-owned properties left the housing supply.
The report suggested that home prices could inch forward by 0.2 percent, with 40 percent of the nation's markets, or 20 out of 50, ready to stabilize in the New Year.
""Overall, 2011 was a relatively quiet year for U.S. home prices compared to the last five years,"" ""Alex Villacorta"":http://www.clearcapital.com/company/data_bios/alex.cfm, director of research and analytics with the firm, said in a statement.
[COLUMN_BREAK]""With national prices down a little more than two percent for the year and sitting at their lowest point since 2001, our projections show that the current balance the market has found will continue through 2012,"" he added.
Home prices bucked flat prices at less than 0.1 percent from the last six months by ending December at 0.4 percent in the red quarter-over-quarter.
Villacorta said that ""lower segments of appreciating markets are driving much of the current price growth.""
He said that states like Florida, often among states with deeply depreciating home prices, continues to see ""considerable activity in lower-end properties as demand continues to heat up.""
Regionally, the Northeast carried the day with a slight 0.1-percent increase year-over-year. Home prices fell steeply in the West at 4.4 percent over the same time, with figures from the South and Midwest placing second and third at 1.3 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively.
Home prices stayed flat or bellied up among cities. Atlanta and Seattle posted sharp declines by 18.3 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively, followed shortly by Birmingham at a downwardly 11.1 percent and Detroit at 10.8 percent.
Cities that saw stronger performances in 2011 included Dayton, Miami, and Florida, which saw home prices climbing to 11.5 percent, 5.6 percent, and 6.7 percent, respectively, in annual growth.
