CoreLogic: Home Price Growth Tops 6% for Fifth Straight Month

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said home prices nationally increased year over year by 6.6 percent, the fifth consecutive month of plus-6 percent growth.

The company’s monthly Home Price Index also showed home prices increased by 0.5 percent from November to December.

“The number of homes for sale has remained very low,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Job growth lowered the unemployment rate to 4.1 percent by year’s end, the lowest level in 17 years. Rising income and consumer confidence has increased the number of prospective homebuyers. The net result of rising demand and limited for-sale inventory is a continued appreciation in home prices.”

According to CoreLogic Market Condition Indicators data, 35 percent of the top 100 metropolitan areas have an overvalued housing market as of December. Twenty-eight percent of metropolitan areas were undervalued and 37 percent were at value. When looking at only the top 50 markets based on housing stock, 48 percent were overvalued, 14 percent were undervalued and 38 percent were at value.

The report said largest price gains in 2017 centered primarily in five western states: California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Washington.

Looking ahead, the CoreLogic HPI Forecast suggests home prices will increase by 4.3 percent on a year-over-year basis through December 2018; on a month-over-month basis home prices are expected to decrease by 0.4 percent through January.

“Home prices continue to rise as a result of aggressive monetary policy, the economic and jobs recovery and a lack of housing stock,” said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “As home prices and the cost of originating loans rise, affordability continues to erode, making it more challenging for both first time buyers and moderate-income families to buy. At this point, we estimate that more than one-third of the 100 largest metropolitan areas are overvalued.”