CoreLogic: Home Price Up 6.3%

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said December home price data show steady month over month and year over year increases.

The company’s Home Price Index for December said home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased year over year by 6.3 percent and month over month by 0.8 percent.

“Nationally, home prices have been rising at a 5 to 6 percent annual rate for more than a year,” said Corelogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft. “However, local-market growth can vary substantially from that. Some metropolitan areas have had double-digit appreciation, such as Denver and Naples, Florida, while others have had price declines, like New Orleans and Rochester, New York.”

Looking ahead, the CoreLogic HPI Forecast forecasts home prices could increase by 5.4 percent on a year-over-year basis from through December 2016; on a month-over-month basis home prices are expected to increase 0.2 percent from December to January.

“Higher property valuations appear to be driving up single-family construction as we head into the spring,” said CoreLogic President and CEO Anand Nallathambi. “Additional housing stock, especially in urban centers on the coasts such as San Francisco, could help to temper home price growth in the longer term. In the short and medium term, local markets with strong employment growth are likely to experience a continued rise in home sales and price growth well above the U.S. average.”