Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 6.4 percent in August 2014 compared with August 2013, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic. This is the 30th month of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 0.3 percent in August 2014 compared with July 2014.
All 50 states showed year-over-year home price appreciation in August. CoreLogic’s Home Price Index (HPI) reached new highs in a total of nine states, plus the District of Columbia. These states are Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming.
Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationally increased 5.9 percent in August 2014 compared to August 2013 and 0.3 percent month over month compared with July 2014. Also excluding distressed sales, 49 states and the District of Columbia showed year-over-year home price appreciation in August, with Mississippi being the only state to experience a year-over-year decline (-1.7 percent). Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.
CoreLogic predicts that home prices, including distressed sales, will increase 0.2 percent month over month from August 2014 to September 2014 and 5.2 percent year-over-year from August 2014 to August 2015.
"The pace of year-over-year appreciation continues to slow down as real estate markets find more balance. Home price appreciation reached a peak of almost 12 percent year-over-year in October 2013 and has since subsided to the current pace of 6 percent," Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic, said in a statement. "Continued moderation of home price appreciation is a welcomed sign of more balanced real estate markets and less pressure on affordability for potential home buyers in the near future."
Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: Michigan (+11.1 percent), California (+9.2 percent), Nevada (+9.2 percent), Maine (+9 percent) and West Virginia (+8.7 percent). Massachusetts ranked sixth, with home prices in the Bay State up 8.7 percent, including distressed sales.
According to the HPI, including distressed transactions, U.S. home prices remain 12.1 percent below their 2006 peak. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -8.6 percent.
The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were: Nevada (-36.2 percent), Florida (-33.4 percent), Arizona (-28.9 percent), Rhode Island (-26.8 percent) and Maryland (-20.2 percent). Massachusetts prices are 4.7 percent below their peak.
