This morning, CoreLogic released its Home Price Index (HPI) and HPI Forecast data for April 2018, showing how home prices have increased year-over-year, and more is it come.
Across the U.S., home prices rose by a total of 6.9 percent when compared to April 2017, increasing another 1.2 percent when compared to last month.
“The best antidote for rising home prices is additional supply,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, CoreLogic’s chief economist, in a statement. “New construction has failed to keep up with and meet new housing growth or replace existing inventory. More construction of for-sale and rental housing will alleviate housing cost pressures.”
Interestingly, lower priced-homes saw a much greater gain year-over-year than higher-priced ones: homes in CoreLogic’s lowest price tier (75 percent or less the value of the national median home) saw a staggering 9.3 percent price increase year-over-year, versus a 5.7 percent price increase year-over-year for the highest-cost bracket of homes (125 percent the value of the national median home).
According to CoreLogic’s predictions, the price of an average American home is expected to rise another 5.3 percent by April 2019 and to have climbed 0.2 percent this May.
Chart showing the year-over-year appreciation of homes in different price tiers | Credit: CoreLogic HPI
This type of market, in which home inventory is low and houses will sell well above their listings price, is consistent across many places in the country. As per CoreLogic’s analysis, 40 percent of the markets in metropolitan cities across the U.S. are overvalued.
While all 50 states recorded year-over-year price increases, Washington, Nevada and Utah saw some of the largest jumps in 12-month home price index changes this year. The Seattle area was hit particularly hard — the average home price jumped 12.8 percent between last April and now.
Even as CoreLogic released a report showing that certain southern states were hit particularly hard by last year’s storm season, the upward trend for homes is unlikely to stop soon.
“Florida continues to show price resiliency after Hurricane Irma in 2017. Despite the impact of the hurricane, prices were up 5.8 percent across the state compared to a year ago,” said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, in a statement. “CoreLogic data projects continued gains to home prices in Florida for the remainder of 2018. However, gains could be erased if a significant storm makes landfall again.”
About the report
The CoreLogic HPI is built on industry-leading public record, servicing and securities real-estate databases and incorporates more than 40 years of repeat-sales transactions for analyzing home price trends.
Generally released on the first Tuesday of each month with an average five-week lag, the CoreLogic HPI is designed to provide an early indication of home price trends by market segment and for the “Single-Family Combined” tier representing the most comprehensive set of properties, including all sales for single-family attached and single-family detached properties.
