LPS: House Price Index increased 0.1% in September, Up 3.6 % year-over-year

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

LPS: House Price Index increased 0.1% in September, Up 3.6 % year-over-year

Image representing Lender Processing Services ...

Boston, Nov.27, stock tips .- Notes: I follow several house price indexes (Case-Shiller, CoreLogic, LPS, Zillow, FNC and more). The timing of different house prices indexes can be a little confusing. LPS uses September closings only (not a three month average like Case-Shiller or a weighted average like CoreLogic), excludes short sales and REOs, and is not seasonally adjusted.

From LPS: U.S. Home Prices Up 0.1 Percent for the Month; Up 3.6 Percent Year-Over-Year

Lender Processing Services ... today released its latest LPS Home Price Index (HPI) report, based on September 2012 residential real estate transactions. The LPS 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 15,500 U.S. ZIP codes. The LPS HPI represents the price of non-distressed sales by taking into account price discounts for REO and short sales.

The LPS HPI is off 22.8% from the peak in June 2006. Note: The press release has data for the 20 largest states, and 40 MSAs. LPS shows prices off 54.4% from the peak in Las Vegas, 46% off from the peak in Riverside-San Bernardino, CA (Inland Empire), and barely off in Austin and Houston.

Looking at the year-over-year price change, in May, the LPS HPI was up 0.4% year-over-year, in June the index was up 0.9% year-over-year, 1.8% in July, 2.6% in August, and now 3.6% in September. This is steady improvement on a year-over-year basis. Note: Case-Shiller for September will be released tomorrow morning.

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Benjamin Graham Was A Crappy Hedge Fund Manager

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In particular, he took issue with the author's reference to Benjamin Graham, the legendary Columbia finance professor who literally wrote the book on Security Analysis and mentored Warren Buffett.

Bogle wrote a letter to the editor. Here's an excerpt: Citing Benjamin Graham as the first "hedged fund" operator is an especially unfortunate example. "The trick," Mr. Rice writes, was Graham's "clever way to make money . . . whether it [the market] continued to rise, or started to fall." ...

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By The Big Picture

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This is wrong; it is legalized theft.

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www.ritholtz.com

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