U.S. home prices increased 0.8% in December compared with November and increased 7.2% compared with December 2015, according to CoreLogic’s home price index report.
However, home prices are not anticipated to increase as much in 2017 as they did in 2016. Currently, CoreLogic is forecasting that home prices will increase about 4.7% this year.
The index takes distressed sales into account.
“As of the end of 2016, the CoreLogic national index was 3.9 percent below the peak reached in April 2006,” says Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a release. “We expect our national index to rise 4.7 percent during 2017, which would put home prices at a new nominal peak before the end of this year.”
“Last year ended with a bang, with home prices up over seven percent nationally, led largely by major metro areas,” adds Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “We expect prices to continue to rise just under five percent in 2017, buoyed by lack of supply and continued high demand.”