Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 8.8 percent in May compared with May 2013, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic. This change represents 27 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 1.4 percent in May compared with April.
"The pace of home price appreciation is cooling off quickly as the weather warms up," Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement. "May’s 8.8 percent year-over-year growth rate is down almost three percentage points from just three months ago. The influences of modestly rising inventory and less-than-expected demand are causing price growth to moderate toward our forecasted expectations."
At the state level, including distressed sales, no states posted depreciation in May 2014 and 25 states and the District of Columbia were at or within 10 percent of their peak home price appreciation. Additionally, ten states reached new home prices highs, including Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New York.
The strongest year-over-year appreciation is in the Western United States, led by Hawaii, California and Nevada. Massachusetts ranked 24th among all states and the District of Colombia for home price appreciation, with prices including distressed sales rising 6.1 percent in May.
Ninety-four of the top 100 largest metropolitan areas across the country showed year-over-year increases in May 2014. However, one of the six which did not was in Massachusetts-sales in Worcester declined slightly. The other five metropolitan areas that did not show growth were Hartford, Conn.; New Haven, Conn.; Little Rock, Ark.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Winston-Salem, N.C.
CoreLogic predicts that home prices, including distressed sales, will increase 0.8 percent month over month from May 2014 to June 2014 and, on a year-over-year basis by 6 percent from May 2014 to May 2015. Excluding distressed sales, home prices are expected to rise 0.7 percent month over month from May 2014 to June 2014 and by 5.1 percent year over year from May 2014 to May 2015.
