Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 12 percent in January 2014 compared with January 2013, according to a new report from real estate analytics firm CoreLogic. This change represents 23 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally. U.S. home prices, including distressed sales, were up 0.9 percent in January compared with December 2013.
Three states-Louisiana, Nebraska and Texas-hit new home price peaks in January. In all, 22 states and the District of Columbia are at or within 10 percent of their peak home price appreciation.
Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationally increased 9.8 percent in January 2014 compared with January 2013 and 0.7 percent month over month compared with December 2013. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.
CoreLogic predicts that February 2014 home prices, including distressed sales, will increase 12.5 percent compared with February 2013, and will be up 0.7 percent from January.
"Polar vortices and a string of snow storms did not manage to weaken house price appreciation in January," Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement. "The last time January month-over-month and year-over-year price appreciation was this strong was at the height of the housing bubble in 2006."
"Excluding distressed sales, all 50 states and the District of Columbia showed year-over-year home price appreciation for January," Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, added in a statement. "Nationwide price growth like this should continue as the market comes out of hibernation for the spring buying season."
Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were Nevada (22.2 percent), California (20.3 percent), Oregon (14.3 percent), Michigan (13.7 percent) and Georgia (13.4 percent). Massachusetts ranked 15th, with price appreciation of 9.8 percent.
Ninety-seven of the country’s top 100 largest population centers as tracked by the Census showed year-over-year increases in January 2014. The three CBSAs that did not show an increase were New Haven-Milford, Conn.; Philadelphia, Penn.; and Rochester, NY.
