IRVINE, Calif.–To the surprise of few people, new data show home prices are up strongly both year over year and month over month.
Home prices nationally increased year over year by 6.6% from May 2016 to May 2017, and on a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 1.2% in May 2017 compared with April 2017, according to the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI).
Looking ahead, the CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices will increase by 5.3% on a year-over-year basis from May 2017 to May 2018, and on a month-over-month basis home prices are expected to increase by 0.9% from May 2017 to June 2017, the company said.
The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. Values are derived from state-level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state.
“The market remained robust with home sales and prices continuing to increase steadily in May,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a released statement. “While the market is consistently generating home price growth, sales activity is being hindered by a lack of inventory across many markets. This tight inventory is also impacting the rental market where overall single-family rent inflation was 3.1% on a year-over-year basis in May of this year compared with May of last year. Rents in the affordable single-family rental segment (defined as properties with rents less than 75% of the regional median rent) increased 4.7% over the same time, well above the pace of overall inflation.”
“For current homeowners, the strong run-up in prices has boosted home equity and, in some cases, spending,” said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “For renters and potential first-time homebuyers, it is not such a pretty picture. With price appreciation and rental inflation outstripping income growth, affordability is destined to become a bigger issue in most markets.”