January Home Prices Rise Most in Washington, Colorado, Oregon

Home prices in the United States rose for the 47th consecutive month in January. Compared with January of 2014, home prices rose 6.9%, including the sales of distressed properties. The year-over-year December increase was 6.3%. Month over month, January home prices rose by 1.3% from December prices, which had risen 0.8% over November prices.

Louisiana and Mississippi were the only states to post negative home price changes in January. Including sales of distressed properties, Louisiana prices are down 1.1% and sales prices in Mississippi are down 1.3%. Both were among the three states that experienced lower growth in December.

The data were released Tuesday by CoreLogic in its Home Price Insights Report for January.

Including sales of distressed properties, the five states posting the largest year-over-year price increases in January were Washington (11.6%), Colorado (10.9%), Oregon (10.0%), Florida (9.1%) and Idaho (8.4%).
[nativounit]
Excluding sales of distressed properties, the five states posting the biggest price increases over the past 12 months were Washington (10.7%), Colorado (10.3%), Oregon (10.1%), Hawaii (8.1%) and Nevada (8.0%).

The five states with the largest remaining peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were Nevada (29.7%), Florida (26.3%), Rhode Island (25.4%), Arizona (24.1%) and Maryland (23.1%).

Peak home prices occurred in April 2006 and current prices remain 7% below that peak. Including distressed sales, CoreLogic forecasts national single-family home prices to reach a new peak in May 2017.

CoreLogic’s chief economist said:

While the national market continues to steadily improve the contours of the home price recovery are shifting. The northwest and Rocky Mountain states have experienced greater appreciation and account for four of the top five states for home price growth.

CoreLogic has forecast that home prices will rise 0.5% month over month in February and rise by 5.5% between January 2016 and January 2017. Both projections include distressed sales.