December 2013 CoreLogic Home Prices Up 11.0% Year-over-Year, Rate of Growth Continues to Slow

Econintersect: CoreLogic’s Home Price Index (HPI) shows that home prices in the USA in December 2013 are up 11.0% year-over-year (reported down 0.1% month-over-month). The year-over-year growth rate was down from the 11.8% reported last month.

This is the 22nd consecutive month of year-over-year increase. Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic stated:

Last year, home prices rose 11 percent, the highest rate of annual increase since 2005, and ten states and the District of Columbia reached new all-time price peaks. We expect the rising prices to attract more sellers, unlocking this pent-up supply, which will have a moderating effect on prices in 2014.

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Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic stated:

The healthy and broad-based gains in home prices in 2013 help set the stage for a continued recovery in the housing sector in 2014. After six years of fits and starts, we can now see a clear path to a durable recovery in single-family residential housing across most of the United States.

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Comparison of Home Price Indices – Case-Shiller 3 Month Average (blue line, left axis), CoreLogic (green line, left axis) and National Association of Realtors (red line, right axis)

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The way to understand the dynamics of home prices is to watch the direction of the rate of change – and not necessarily whether the prices are getting better or worse. Home prices are improving – but the rate growth of year-over-year price improvement is now flat (not accelerating or decelerating).

Year-over-Year Price Change Home Price Indices – Case-Shiller 3 Month Average (blue bar), CoreLogic (yellow bar) and National Association of Realtors (red bar)

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Steven Hansen

Source: CoreLogic