Veros: Nearly All Markets to Continue Home Price Appreciation

Veros Real Estate Solutions, Santa Ana, Calif., said residential market values will continue their overall upward trends during the next 12 months with nearly all markets forecast to appreciate even if slight or modest and overall annual forecast appreciation.

The company’s quarterly VeroFORECAST projects price increases of 4.0% for the 12-month period ending September 2018, higher than last quarter’s forecast appreciation of +3.7%.

The forecast said only 3% of markets are expected to depreciate. “All of the top 10 forecast markets are exclusively in Washington, Colorado and Idaho with the top three markets in Mount Vernon, Seattle and Bellingham, Wash.

“These markets have forecast appreciation greater than 10% for the next 12 months, and are all characterized by strong population growth, low unemployment and a low supply of housing inventory,” said Eric Fox, Vice President of Statistical and Economic Modeling with Veros.

The report said 20 of the bottom 25 markets are either in the Northeast or in the South, mostly in smaller metropolitan areas. Atlantic City, N.J. is forecast to be the worst performing market over the next year with 2.0% depreciation expected.

Fox noted several emerging trends. “Appreciation in Boston is expected to continue to accelerate going from 6.5% during the last update pushing to close to 8% during this update,” he said. “Also, we see some softening in South Florida with many of these markets along the Southeast coast to have their forecast appreciation 1%-2% lower than during the last quarterly update.” He added it was “not yet evident” how hurricane-effected areas will fare.