| Home prices are up strongly both year over year and month over month, according to a new report from CoreLogic, a global property information provider.
Home prices nationally increased year over year by 6.6 percent from May 2016 to May 2017, and on a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 1.2 percent in May 2017 compared with April 2017, according to the report.
In Massachusetts, home prices increased 6.5 percent between May 2016 and May 2017. Prices appreciated 6.3 percent in the Boston metropolitan statistical area during the same time.
The report forecasts home prices will increase by 5.3 percent from May 2017 to May 2018, and home prices are expected to increase by 0.9 percent from May 2017 to June 2017.
“The market remained robust with home sales and prices continuing to increase steadily in May,” Dr. Frank Nothaft, CoreLogic chief economist, said in a statement. “While the market is consistently generating home price growth, sales activity is being hindered by a lack of inventory across many markets. This tight inventory is also impacting the rental market where overall single-family rent inflation was 3.1 percent on a year-over-year basis in May of this year compared with May of last year.”
“For current homeowners, the strong run-up in prices has boosted home equity and, in some cases, spending,” Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in a statement. “For renters and potential first-time homebuyers, it is not such a pretty picture. With price appreciation and rental inflation outstripping income growth, affordability is destined to become a bigger issue in most markets.”
