Monday, March 4, 2013

US Home Prices Make Big Strides

The U.S. housing market finished 2012 with big gains in home prices as every state in the country posted increases except for Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. CoreLogic reports the national average for house prices increased 8.3% for the year ending in December, which marked the biggest gain since May 2006. Among the states that saw the most improvement were Arizona, Nevada and Idaho following drastic lows during the worst of the country’s housing market crisis. Experts predict house prices will continue to improve in the current year. For more on this continue reading the following article from TheStreet.

Home prices rose 8.3% in December from a year earlier, the biggest gain since May 2006, according to CoreLogic.

All but four states -- Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois and Delaware -- posted increases.

Prices rose 0.4% in December from November, the 10th consecutive monthly advance.

Excluding foreclosures and short sales, which sell at deep discounts to the market price, home prices were up 7.5% on a year-on-year basis and 0.9% month-on-month.

The states with the highest home-price appreciation in December were Arizona (20%), Nevada (15.3%), Idaho (14.6%), California (12.6%) and Hawaii (12.5%).

"We are heading into 2013 with home prices on the rebound," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "All signals point to a continued improvement in the fundamentals underpinning the U.S. housing market recovery."

Housing appears to have some momentum, with prices expected to rise 7.9% in January from a year earlier, according to Core Logic's Pending Home Sales Index. Month over month, prices are likely to decline by 1%, reflecting the seasonal winter slowdown.

Excluding foreclosures and short sales, which sell at deep discounts to market prices, home prices are likely to rise 8.6% on a year-on-year basis and 0.7% on a month-on-month basis in January.

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