Home price growth remains strong heading into new year

Home price growth remains strong heading in to 2016 – but there are some markets already showing signs that they are running out of steam

Numbers from one global property information analytics provider shows home prices are up both year over-year and month-over-month.

“Heading into 2016, home price growth remains in its sweet spot as prices have increased between 5% and 6% on a year-over-year basis for 16 consecutive months,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Regionally we are beginning to see fissures, with slowdowns in some Texas and California markets, but the northwest and southeast remain on solid footing.”

CoreLogic, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider, released its Home Price Index (HPI) and HPI Forecast data for November 2015, showing home prices are up both year over year and month over month.

Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 6.3% in November 2015 compared with the same month in 2014 and increased by 0.5% in November 2015 compared with October 2015.

“Many factors, including strong demand and tight supply in many markets, are contributing to the long-sustained boom in prices and home equity which is a very good thing for those owning homes,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “On the flip side, prices have outstripped incomes for several years in a number of regions so, as we enter 2016, affordability is becoming more of a constraint on sales in some markets.”

The CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices will increase by 5.4% on a year-over-year basis from November 2015 to November 2016, and on a month-over-month basis home prices are expected to remain flat from November 2015 to December 2015.

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.