West Leads Nation with Double Digit Price Increases

Once again a report on home price changes indicates that appreciation has not yet slowed.  CoreLogic issued a report on its Home Price Index for December of Tuesday which indicates a pick-up in monthly increases.

The index shows prices nationwide, including distressed sales, rose 0.8 percent from November to December compared to a 0.5 percent change from October to November. On an annual basis there was a 6.3 percent gain, the same as the November 2014 to November 2015 pace.

"Nationally, home prices have been rising at a 5 to 6 percent annual rate for more than a year," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "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."

Among the states the highest annual appreciation was again in Colorado at 10.4 percent followed by two other western states, Washington and Oregon at 10.3 and 9.1 percent respectively.  Three states posted declines; Louisiana (2.9 percent), Mississippi (2.8 percent), and New Mexico (0.1 percent).

Among large metropolitan areas the largest annual increases were scored by San Francisco at 12.6 and Denver at 11.4 percent.

The CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices will increase by 5.4 percent on a year-over-year basis from December 2015 to December 2016, and on a month-over-month basis home prices are expected to increase 0.2 percent from December 2015 to January 2016. The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. Values are derived from state-level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state.

"Higher property valuations appear to be driving up single-family construction as we head into the spring. 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," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "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."