Us house prices see quarterly drop

US house prices saw the biggest quarterly drop since 2010 in February 2014, according to Clear Capital.

The company's latest report shows house price gains were "notably lower" over the three months to February, highlighting the importance of a 1 per cent shift.

"As markets adjust to the new normal, 1% is significant; 2014 is only expected to see 3%-5% growth. Graph 1 shows the recent, significant drop in quarterly trends," said Clear Capital.

At the same time, national REO saturation ticked up 1.8 percentage points from 20.9% to 22.7%, the largest gain since January 2012.

"With one month of winter to go, moderating prices in the bottom half of the lowest performing metro markets suggest near-term price declines are not out of the question," added the report.

Indeed, in February, three out of 15 metros reported slight declines over the quarter, with the remaining 12 metros wmostly flat with not one market reaching 1% growth.