Many states with faster foreclosure processes are seeing sharper increases in home prices than states where foreclosures take longer to get done, USA Today reported yesterday. There are exceptions, and other factors—such as job growth—are likely stronger drivers of home price trends, economists say. But home price data generally show stronger price increases in states where courts do not have to approve foreclosures than in states where they do. Last year, home values tracked by Zillow, a web-based real estate tracker, rose an average 5.4 percent in the 24 states where foreclosures do not go through the courts. Where they do, the average increase, according to Zillow, was 3.2 percent. Asking prices, a leading indicator of price trends, show a similar pattern. In January, asking prices in non-judicial states were up an average of 7.3 percent year-over-year vs. 3.1 percent for judicial foreclosure states, according to data from real estate website Trulia.
