Home prices rise in July, CoreLogic reports

CoreLogic, which has provided the nation with pertinent data on financial, property and consumer interests for more than two decades, recently published its latest findings on U.S. home prices. For real estate figures, it examines home sales from all 50 states, and Washington, D.C. with data gathered from 1,172 counties. Housing industry professionals, economists, prospective home buyers and home sellers will be interested to learn that July’s findings reveal that home prices, nationwide, are on the rise.

In the year over year comparison with July 2013, this year’s home prices were up by 7.4 percent. Please note that this also includes prices for distressed properties. This is significant because it marks 29 consecutive months of increasing home prices. Certainly, even the naysayers will have to agree that the state of the U.S. housing market is back on track!

CoreLogic’s analysts revealed that with a combination of regular and distressed sales, the best appreciation rates were seen in these five states:

• Michigan +11.4 percent
• Maine +10.6 percent
• Nevada +10.6 percent
• Hawaii +10.5 percent
• California +10.5 percent

The states that had the highest increases in home prices excluding the distressed property market were:

• Massachusetts +11.2 percent
• New York +9.7 percent
• Maine +9.5 percent
• Hawaii +9.2 percent
• Florida +8.8 percent

The CoreLogic data also pinpointed those states in which the largest drops in home values were experienced. Those also included figures for distressed property sales:

• Nevada -36.4 percent
• Florida -33.0 percent
• Arizona -28.9 percent
• Rhode Island -26.9 percent
• New Jersey -20.6 percent

In reviewing home price total evaluations that included figures for distressed property sales in July 2014, Arkansas was the only state to see a decline in prices, with a 0.9 percent depreciation. States that saw some of the highest HPI (Home Price Index) stats were Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Vermont.

The deputy chief economist for CoreLogic, Sam Khater, explained that over the spring and summer, U.S. home prices have tapered off, but pointed out that geographic influences are changing.

“Entering this year, price increases were led by western and southern states, but over the last few months northeastern and midwestern states are migrating to the forefront of home price rankings,” Khater observed.

CoreLogic’s CEO, Anand Nallathambi, also noted that U.S. home prices are reaching levels that have not been attained since the pre-housing bust year of 2006. In fact, Nallathambi predicts, “Our data indicates that this trend will continue, with more states hitting new all-time peaks this year and into 2015 as the recovery continues.”

According to CoreLogic’s HPI Forecast, home prices including those for distressed properties are expected to rise 5.7 percent from July 2014 through July 2015.

It should be considered that this type of information is very important because home prices are a vital gauge for measuring the overall state of the economy. The chain of events, goods, and services that home buys, even for distressed properties, set in motion have a huge financial impact. Think of all the individuals and businesses buying a home may involve, such as appraisers, lenders, inspectors, landscapers, retailers, subcontractors…and this is just the tip of the iceberg. When home prices are stable or rising, consumer confidence goes up. In turn, people spend more and in turn strengthen the economy. It is also beneficial to those homeowners who have been in limbo because they owed more than their properties were worth. When prices go up, they can finally consider refinancing or putting those homes on the market.