US Home Prices Post Largest Gain Since 2006

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U.S. home prices increased 10.5 percent year-over-year in March, posting the largest gain since March 2006, according to the new home price index released today by CoreLogic.  

Led by high gains in western states, national home prices increased 1.9 percent in March compared to the month before, marking the 13th consecutive monthly increase in national home prices, including distressed sales.  

The CoreLogic numbers provide further evidence of the recovering housing market in the U.S. The CoreLogic numbers also reflect similar home price gains identified by the Case Shiller index a few days ago.

The states with the highest gains were Nevada (+22.2 percent), California (+17.2 percent), Arizona (+16.8 percent), Idaho (+14.5 percent) and Oregon (+14.3 percent).  Most of the price increases are due to rising demand among investors and homebuyers for limited supply of homes for sale, president and CEO of CoreLogic Anand Nallathambi said.  

Excluding distressed sales, home prices went up by 10.7 percent in March compared to the year before and increased by 2.4 percent month-over-month. 
 
"For the first time since March 2006, both the overall index and the index that excludes distressed sales are above 10 percent year-over-year," chief economist for CoreLogic Dr. Mark Fleming said.

CoreLogic, which recently acquired Case-Shiller home index, predicts April 2013 home prices, including distressed sales, to increase by 9.6 percent from a year earlier. 

Highlights of the March report:

• Including distressed sales, this month only four states posted home price depreciation: Delaware (-3.7 percent), Alabama (-3.1 percent), Illinois (-1.8 percent) and West Virginia (-0.3 percent).

• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: Nevada (+20.8 percent), California (+16.8 percent), Idaho (+16.3), Arizona (+15.1 percent) and Hawaii (+14.3 percent).

• Excluding distressed sales, no states posted home price depreciation in March.

• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to March 2013) was -25.1 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -18.3 percent.

• The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were Nevada (-49.2 percent), Florida (-42.8 percent), Michigan (-38.9 percent), Arizona (-37.8 percent) and Rhode Island (-36.2 percent).

• Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 88 were showing year-over-year increases in March, down from 92 in February.

March HPI for the Country's Largest CBSAs by Population (Ranked by Single-Family Including Distressed):