Home prices nationwide rose 6.3% year over year in May 2015, leading some states to new peaks not seen in nearly 40 years, new data from CoreLogic shows.
This change represents 39 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally, notes CoreLogic. On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 1.7% in May 2015 compared with the previous month.
“Mortgage rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans remained below 4% through May, helping to fuel home-purchase activity,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a statement. “Our homes-for-sale listing data shows that markets with high demand and limited supply, such as San Francisco, are recording double-digit appreciation rates over the past year.”
The positive upward trend is expected to continue, with CoreLogic predicting a 5.1% year over year increase in home prices in May 2016.
Including distressed sales, 33 states and the District of Columbia were at or within 10% of their peak prices in May 2015. Ten states and the District of Columbia reached new price peaks not seen since January 1976. Those states include Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont.
“The rate of home price appreciation ticked up in May with gains being fairly widely distributed across the country. Importantly, higher home prices over the past couple of years have spurred increases in new single-family construction,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Sales of newly built homes during the first five months of 2015 were up 23% from a year ago, and as rising values build equity for homeowners, we expect to see more existing homes offered for sale in the coming year.”
Excluding distressed sales, only Massachusetts (-2%) and Louisiana (-0.2%) showed year-over-year depreciation in May, data show.
View CoreLogic data here.
Written by Cassandra Dowell
