National home value appreciation rose again in July, up 0.4 percent from June, according to a new report from real estate portal Zillow.
The company’s Home Value Index reached $161,600 last month, up 6 percent year-over-year, the 14th straight month of annual appreciation and the first time year-over-year appreciation rates have reached 6 percent since 2006.
Monthly home values have risen in 20 of the past 21 months, beginning in November 2011 after the U.S. market bottomed in October of that year. The 6 percent national rate of annual appreciation is the highest since August 2006.
Of the 393 metros Zillow tracked in July, 289, 73.5 percent, registered month-over-month appreciation, and 303, 77.1 percent, showed annual appreciation. All 30 of the largest metro areas covered by Zillow registered both monthly and annual appreciation in July, and all have hit their bottom and are expected to show appreciation in the next 12 months. Metros with the largest annual gains in July included Sacramento, 33.1 percent, Las Vegas, 30.8 percent, and San Francisco, 27.8 percent. In Boston, prices were up 1.4 in July compared with June and up 8.4 percent over July of 2012, with an index price of $338,000, according to Zillow.
For the 12-month period from July 2013 to July 2014, U.S. home values will rise another 4.8 percent to approximately $169,308, Zillow predicts.
"After three straight months of annual home value appreciation above 5 percent, the U.S. housing market recovery has proven it is on very sound footing. We have entered a new phase in the recovery when we can begin to turn away from ugly recent history and turn toward what the housing market of the future will look like and how it will act," Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said in a statement.
The number of completed foreclosures in July fell to 4.9 homes foreclosed out of every 10,000 homes nationwide, down from 5.2 homes in June. Foreclosure resales represented 8.7 percent of homes sold in the U.S. in July, down 0.7 percentage points from June and 3.4 percentage points from July 2012.
