While Washington’s largest city continues to dominate home-price gains, Colorado, Nevada and New York are all showing signs of strength.
At 204.45 as of December 2017, the
Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index was 0.2 percent higher than it was just one month previous.
Compared to the end of 2016, the index — a value-weighted average of 20 metropolitan area indices — indicates that U.S. home prices have appreciated by 6.3 percent.
The index was reported Tuesday by
S&P Dow Jones Indices and CoreLogic Inc.
Home prices are still 1.0 percent less than their July 2006 peak and 52.5 percent higher than the March 2012 trough.
“The rise in home prices should be causing the same nervous wonder aimed at the stock market after its recent bout of volatility,” David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, cautioned in the report. “Across the 20 cities covered by S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller Home Price Indices, the average increase from the financial crisis low is 62 percent; over the same period, inflation was 12.4 percent.”
Compared to December 2016, home prices in Seattle have soared 12.7 percent — the most of any of the 20 cities tracked. Las Vegas had an 11.1 percent gain, followed by 9.2 percent in San Francisco, 7.5 percent in Los Angeles and 7.4 percent in both Denver and San Diego.
With just a 2.8 percent year-over-year gain, the District of Columbia had the lowest appreciation in the 20-city index.
Another home price index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency was 258.9 in December, up from November by 0.3 percent and 6.5 percent higher than in December 2016.
FHFA’s HPI is determined based on home purchase price data on mortgages acquired or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“As we begin to evaluate home prices in the first quarter, we will monitor whether new headwinds — higher mortgage rates and changes in tax laws — will lead to any moderation in the rate of house price growth,” FHFA Deputy Chief Economist Dr. Andrew Leventis said in the report.
Compared to a year earlier, home prices in the Mountain Region have climbed 9 percent, the most of any Census Division reported by FHFA.
The West North Central had the smallest gain: 4.6 percent.
Black Knight Inc. reported that its HPI was a record $283,000 at the close of last year, inching up 0.1 percent from a month earlier and 6.6 percent more than a year earlier. U.S. home prices are 42.2 percent higher than the January 2012 low.
In New York, home prices were up 1.7 percent from the preceding month, according to Black Knight, the most of any state. Next was Nevada’s 0.8 percent, then Georgia’s 0.7 percent, South Carolina’s 0.6 percent and Colorado’s 0.5 percent.
With a 1.1 percent year-over-year decline, Ohio fared worst.
CoreLogic Inc. reported earlier this month that its HPI was up 0.5 percent from November and 6.6 percent more than December 2016.
CoreLogic estimates that there was an 0.4 percent decline in U.S. home prices between December 2017 and January 2018 — though its early estimations of month-over-month declines have been wrong for three consecutive months (prices have risen).
Between December 2017 and December 2018, CoreLogic expects home prices to rise 4.3 percent.
A separate report from Santa Ana, California-based CoreLogic indicated that while it predicted home prices would rise 4.5 percent between November 2016 and November 2017, it validated that prices were actually up 6.2 percent during the period.
“The release of the HPI Forecast Validation Report shows that our assumptions that continued home price growth throughout the nation were correct,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Dr. Frank Nothaft stated in the report.
