CoreLogic: Home prices trending up
An analysis of home prices released by CoreLogic, a provider of information, analytics and business services, reported a 4.6% rise in home prices nationwide in August 2012. This change represents the biggest year-over-year increase since July 2006. On a month-over-month basis, including distressed sales, home prices increased by 0.3% in August 2012 compared to July 2012.
The August 2012 figures mark the sixth consecutive increase in home prices nationally on both a year-over-year and month-over-month basis. The Home Price Index (HPI) analysis from CoreLogic shows that all but six states are experiencing price gains.
Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationwide increased on a year-over-year basis by 4.9% in August 2012 compared with August 2011. On a month-over-month basis excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 1% in August 2012 compared with July 2012, also the sixth consecutive month-over-month increase. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.
CoreLogic predicts that September 2012 home prices, including distressed sales, will rise by 5% on a year-over-year basis from September 2011 and fall by 0.3% on a month-over-month basis from August 2012 as the summer buying season closes out. Excluding distressed sales, September 2012 house prices are expected to rise 6.3% year-over-year from September 2011 and by 0.6% month-over-month from August 2012.
"Again this month prices rose on a year-over-year basis, and our expectation is for that to continue in September based on our pending HPI forecast," said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. "The housing markets gains are increasingly geographically diverse with only six states continuing to show declining prices."
"Sustained economic recovery in the U.S. requires a healthy housing market. You cannot have a healthy housing market without price stabilization and ultimately home price appreciation," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "Improving pricing trends over the past few months, and our forecast for continued gains in September bode well for a progressive rebound in the residential housing market."