The amount Americans paid to purchase homes increased nearly 7 percent in January, according to CoreLogic, which is forecasting that home prices will rise nearly 5 percent by next year.
The CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) found that home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, rose 6.9 percent in January year-over-year. Home prices increased less than 1 percent from December 2016 to January 2017.
“With lean for-sale inventories and low rental vacancy rates, many markets have seen housing prices outpace inflation,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said in a press release.
CoreLogic is forecasting that home prices will increase by 4.8 percent on a year-over-year basis from January 2017 to January 2018.
“Home prices continue to climb across the nation, and the spring home buying season is shaping up to be one of the strongest in recent memory,” CoreLogic President and CEO Frank Martell said. “A potent mix of progressive economic recovery, demographics, tight housing stocks and continued low mortgage rates are expected to support this robust market outlook for the foreseeable future.”
According to the HPI, the states with the largest year-over-year price increases were Washington (10.8 percent), Oregon (10.3 percent), South Dakota (9.1 percent), Colorado (9.1 percent), Idaho (9 percent), Utah (8 percent), Tennessee (7.4 percent), Florida (7.3 percent) and New York (7.1 percent).