Housing

January Home Prices Rise Most in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and South Dakota

Paul Ausick

Published: March 7, 2017 9:50 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 2:11 pm

Home prices in the United States rose for the 60th consecutive month in January. Compared with January of 2016, home prices rose 6.9%, including the sales of distressed properties. The year-over-year December increase was 7.2%. Month over month, January home prices rose by 0.7% from December prices, which had risen 0.8% over November prices.

Only one state posted negative home price changes in January: Maine, down 1.8%. Home prices reached new highs in the District of Columbia and 13 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Washington.

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 (10.8%), Oregon (10.3%), Colorado (9.1%), South Dakota (9.1%) and Idaho (9.0%).

CoreLogic chief economist Frank Nothaft said:

With lean for-sale inventories and low rental vacancy rates, many markets have seen housing prices outpace inflation. Over the 12 months through January of this year, the CoreLogic Home Price Index recorded a 6.9 percent rise in home prices nationally and the CoreLogic Single-Family Rental Index was up 2.7 percent — both rising faster than inflation.

All the more reason, perhaps, to consider selling your home in 2017.

Excluding sales of distressed properties, the five states posting the biggest price increases over the past 12 months were Washington (9.9%), Oregon (9.7%), South Dakota (9.1%), Colorado (8.7%) and Idaho (8.0%).

The five states with the largest remaining peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were Nevada (31.6%), Florida (20.8%), Arizona (20.6%), Connecticut (20.0%) and Maryland (19.1%).

Peak home prices occurred in April 2006 and current prices remain 4% below that peak. Including distressed sales, CoreLogic forecasts national single-family home prices to reach a new peak in October 2017.

CoreLogic has forecast that home prices will rise 0.1% month over month in February and rise by 4.8% between January 2017 and January 2018. Both projections include distressed sales.