National home values continued to rise in November, increasing 0.6% from October to a Zillow Home Value Index of $168,900, according to the November Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.
Home values were up 7.1% year-over-year, reflecting a continued slowdown from the summer selling season, when annual home value appreciation peaked at 7.3%, according to the report.
A majority (77.1%) of the metros covered in the reports experienced home value appreciation between October and November, with only 95 of the 485 metro areas (or 19.6%) experiencing declines. On an annual basis, 88% of metros experienced home value appreciation.
Among the 35 largest metro areas covered by Zillow, 34 experienced year-over-year home value increases in November, with nearly half up by double-digit percentages. Major markets where home values increased the most over the past year include Las Vegas (30.9%); Riverside, Calif. (29.2%); and Sacramento, Calif. (25%). St. Louis was the only metro area in the top 35 where home values declined year-over-year.
For the 12-month period from November 2013 to November 2014, national home values are expected to rise another 4.6% to approximately $176,731, according to the Zillow Home Value Forecast. Large metro areas expected to show the most appreciation over the next year include Riverside (18.6%), Sacramento (11.9%) and Las Vegas (10.4%).
‘The pace of home value appreciation has leveled off and is beginning to slow down, after peaking this summer," says Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow. "Much of this year's rapid growth in home values can be attributed to very strong demand, as low mortgage interest rates, relatively low home prices and a slowly improving economy helped draw buyers into the market.
‘Those dynamics are now giving way to more moderating influences, including rising mortgage interest rates, flagging investor demand and slowly increasing for-sale inventory," he adds. "This slowdown in home value appreciation will contribute to a more balanced market and will help to ease some emerging affordability problems in a handful of very hot markets, particularly in California."
National rents rose in November from October, up 0.3% to a Zillow Rent Index of $1,297. Year-over-year, national rents were up 2% in November, according to the report.
The data also shows that the number of completed foreclosures in November fell to 5.09 homes foreclosed out of every 10,000 homes nationwide, down from 5.45 homes in September. Foreclosure re-sales represented 8.9% of homes sold in the U.S. in November, up 0.4 percentage points from September but down 1.4 percentage points from November 2012.