National home prices improve slightly during April

According to recent data released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, home prices showed slight improvement during April, increasing for the first time in nearly a year.

Overall, the FHFA's House Price Index climbed by 0.8 percent after experiencing a 0.3 percent decline in March, which was later revised to 0.4 percent. The last month recording a gain in home prices was May 2010.

Since April 2010, home prices were down 5.7 percent, according to the index. However, this figure is skewed, as prices increased last year due to the government's first-time homebuyer tax credit. As more buyers came to market to beat the April 30, 2010 deadline for the credit, home prices increased significantly.

Historically, the index is well below its peak reached in April 2007, falling 19.3 percent since then. The current index level is on par with January 2004's figure.

In Texas, the price actually increased 2.1 percent, the largest jump in more than a year. While the national trend has seen several months of downward movement, Texas has only recorded two months of price declines during October 2010. Thus, the Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston real estate markets are showing signs of improvement.

Courtesy of 2M Realty News