Home prices maintained their course and increased 11% in December 2013 compared to a year ago, recording the 22nd consecutive monthly year-over-year increase in home prices nationally, according to the latest December CoreLogic Home Price Index.
Month-over-month, home prices, including distressed sales, dipped by .1% in December compared to November.
Home prices, excluding distressed sales, jumped by 9.9% in December compared to a year prior and .2% month-over-month compared to November.
“Last year, home prices rose 11%, the highest rate of annual increase since 2005, and ten states and the District of Columbia reached new all-time price peaks,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.
“We expect the rising prices to attract more sellers, unlocking this pent-up supply, which will have a moderating effect on prices in 2014,” Fleming added.
Looking ahead, the HPI forecasts that January homes prices, including distressed sales, will increase 10.2% year-over-year from January 2013. But on a month-over-month basis, home prices are projected to dip .8% from December 2013 to January 2014.
Excluding distressed sales, January 2014 home prices are estimated to rise 9.7% year-over-year from January 2013 and 0.2% month-over-month from December 2013.
“The healthy and broad-based gains in home prices in 2013 help set the stage for the continued recovery in the housing sector in 2014,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.
“After six years of fits and starts, we can now see a clearer path to a durable recovery in single-family residential housing across most of the United States,” Nallathambi added.
