Home Prices Rising Fastest in Colorado and South Carolina

Home prices in the United States rose for the 37th consecutive month in March, and the monthly increase ticked up at a higher rate. Compared with March of 2014, home prices rose 5.9%, including the sales of distressed properties. The year-over-year February increase was 5.6%. March home prices rose by 2.0% from February prices, which had risen 1.1% over January prices.

The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were Nevada (34.7%), Florida (31.5%), Rhode Island (29.0%), Arizona (27.4%) and Connecticut (25.5%). The data were released Tuesday by research firm CoreLogic. Peak home prices occurred in April 2006.

Including sales of distressed properties, the five states posting the largest year-over-year price increases in March were Colorado (9.2%), South Carolina (9.1%), Kansas (8.0%), Texas (8.0%) and Nevada (7.6%).

Excluding sales of distressed properties, the five states posting the biggest price increases over the past 12 months were Kansas (9.5%), Colorado (8.5%), South Carolina (8.2%), Florida (7.9%),and Texas (up 7.6%).

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CoreLogic’s CEO said:

All signs are pointing toward continued price appreciation throughout 2015. In fact, the strong month-over-month gain in March may be a harbinger of accelerating price appreciation as we enter the spring selling season. Tight inventories, job growth and the inexorable impact of demographics and household formation are pushing price levels in many states, and especially large metropolitan areas like Dallas, Denver, Houston, Seattle, and San Francisco, toward record levels.

CoreLogic has forecast that home prices will rise 0.8% month-over-month in April and rise by 5.1% between March 2015 and April 2016. Both projections include distressed sales.

In its latest report based on a survey of senior loan officers, the Federal Reserve noted:

Regarding loans to households, banks reported having eased lending standards for a number of categories of residential mortgage loans over the past three months on net. Most banks reported no change in standards and terms on consumer loans. On the demand side, moderate net fractions of banks reported stronger demand across most categories of home-purchase loans. Similarly, respondents experienced stronger demand for auto and credit card loans on balance.

Banks are willing to lend and buyers are willing to borrow. Now inventory just has to catch up.

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