Home prices throughout the U.S. continued their upward trend in April, registering both month-over-month and yearly increases, according to the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI).
The HPI found home prices jumped 6.9 percent in April 2017 compared with April 2016, and increased 1.6 percent in April 2017 compared with March 2017.
CoreLogic is forecasting that home prices will increase 5.1 percent on a year-over-year basis from April 2017 to April 2018, and 0.7 percent on a month-over-month basis from April 2017 to May 2017.
“Mortgage rates in April dipped back to their lowest level since November of last year, spurring home-buying activity,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said in a release. “In some metro areas, there has been a bidding frenzy as multiple contracts are placed on a single home. This has led home-price growth to outpace rent gains.”
CoreLogic president and CEO Frank Martell said interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages, down one-fourth of a percentage point since mid-March, should help the spring buying season.
“Some metro areas have low for-sale inventory, short time-on-market trends and homes that sell above the list price. Geographically, gains were strongest in the West with Washington and Utah posting double-digit gains,” Martell said.
The largest year-over-year increases in home prices were in Washington (12 percent); Utah (10.1 percent); Oregon (9.1 percent); Michigan (8.7 percent); Colorado (8 percent); and New York (7.2 percent).