U.S. home prices – including distressed sales – increased 1.1% in September compared with August and increased 6.3% compared with September 2015, according to CoreLogic‘s home price index report.
States that saw the biggest increases in home prices, year over year, including distressed sales, were Washington (10.3%), Oregon (10.1%), Colorado (8.6%), Utah (7.8%) and Idaho (7.7%).
States that saw the biggest increases, year over year, excluding distressed sales, were Washington (9.7%), Oregon (9.5%), Colorado (8.3%), Utah (6.9%) and New York (6.8%).
States that saw the biggest decreases in home prices, year over year, including distressed sales, were Connecticut (-1.4%) and Alaska (-0.3%).
Currently, CoreLogic is forecasting that home prices will increase by 0.3% from September to October and by 5.2% from September 2016 to September 2017.
“Home equity wealth has doubled during the last five years to $13 trillion, largely because of the recovery in home prices,” says Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Nationwide during the past year, the average gain in housing wealth was about $11,000 per homeowner, but with wide geographic variation.”
“Home price growth creates wealth for owners with home equity,” adds Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “A five percent rise in home values over the next year would create another $1 trillion in home equity wealth for homeowners.”