U.S. home prices increased 0.8% in December compared with November and increased 6.3% compared with December 2014, according to CoreLogic’s home price index.
Currently, the firm is forecasting that home prices will increase 0.2% from December 2015 to January 2016 and will increase by 5.4% from December 2015 to December 2016.
“Nationally, home prices have been rising at a five to six percent annual rate for more than a year,” says Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a release. “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.”
“Higher property valuations appear to be driving up single-family construction as we head into the spring,” adds Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “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. 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.”