Report: Home prices drop for sixth straight month

It's still a great time to buy for people planning on moving, as home prices nationwide fell in January.

According to CoreLogic and its January Home Price Index, property values plummeted for a sixth straight month, dropping 5.7 percent due to the high rate of negative equity, unemployment and shadow inventory.

"A number of factors continue to dampen any recovery in the housing market," said Mark Fleming, chief economist with CoreLogic. "We are looking out for renewed demand in the coming months as the spring buying season gets underway to hopefully reduce the downward pressure."

The CoreLogic report says home prices struggle mightily out west as Idaho, Arizona, Oregon and Utah all saw the greatest depreciation levels in January. The West did have pockets of good news, however, as Wyoming showed a 0.2 percent appreciation in sales activity. Other states where property values were up included North Dakota, New York, Hawaii and West Virginia, which led the way at 5.5 percent.

According to data released by RealEstate Business Intelligence, Washington, D.C. saw the largest pending home sales increase last month at 33 percent year-over-year.