IRVINE, Calif.—Real estate values continue to soar, with home prices up 6.3% in May versus one year earlier, according to the May 2015 CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI), which includes distressed sales.
That change represents 39 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 1.7% in May 2015 compared with April 2015
The data show that including distressed sales, 33 states and the District of Columbia were at or within 10% of their peak prices in May 2015. Ten states and the District of Columbia reached new price peaks not experienced since January 1976 when the CoreLogic HPI started. These states are Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont.
Excluding distressed sales, only Massachusetts (-2%) and Louisiana (-0.2%) showed year-over-year depreciation in May. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate-owned (REO) transactions.
The CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices, including distressed sales, are projected to increase by 0.9% month over month from May 2015 to June 2015 and by 5.1% on a year-over-year basis from May 2015 to May 2016. Excluding distressed sales, home prices are projected to increase by 0.8% month over month from May 2015 to June 2015 and by 4.7% year over year from May 2015 to May 2016. The company said its 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.
“Mortgage rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans remained below 4% through May, helping to fuel home-purchase activity,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Our homes-for-sale listing data shows that markets with high demand and limited supply, such as San Francisco, are recording double-digit appreciation rates over the past year.”
Among the findings in the latest data:
- Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: South Carolina (+10.3%), Colorado (+9.8%), Washington (+8.8%), Florida (+8.7%) and Nevada (+8.3%).
- Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: South Carolina (+9.6%), Colorado (+9.2%), Florida (+8.9%), Washington (+8.5%) and Oregon (+7.9%).
- Including distressed sales, only five states experienced home price depreciation including: Massachusetts (-4.8%), Connecticut (-1.8%), Maryland (-1.5%), Mississippi (-1.4%) and Louisiana (-0.8%).
- Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to May 2015) was -8.4%. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change for the same period was -4.7%.
- The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were: Nevada (-32.9%), Florida (-28.8%), Rhode Island (-27.5%), Arizona (-26%) and Maryland (-23.1%).
- Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 92 showed year-over-year increases. The eight CBSAs that showed year-over-year declines were: Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Md. (-1.8%); Boston (-4.8%); Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn. (-0.32%); Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, Mass. (-2.9%); Camden, N.J. (-0.96%); New Orleans-Metairie (-6.4%); Silver Spring-Frederick-Rockville, Md. (-0.31%) and Worcester, Mass.-Conn. (-6.6%).