Unstoppable housing prices?

As the market continues to improve, home prices continue to rise

As the market continues to improve, home prices continue to rise.

Prices are up both year-over-year and month-over-month, according to CoreLogic.

Home sales were up 6.9% year-over-year in January and 1.3% from December to January, according to the analytics firm’s housing price index.

 “Heading into the spring buying season, home prices continue to rise across much of the country,” Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said. “With rates staying low for now and continued solid job and income growth, the spring buying season is shaping up to be a good one.”

Housing prices are expected to see further increases, according to CoreLogic which is forecasting a 5.5% year-over-year increase from January 2016 to January 2017.

“While the national market continues to steadily improve, the contours of the home price recovery are shifting,” Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, said. “The northwest and Rocky Mountain states have experienced greater appreciation and account for four of the top five states for home price growth.”

The states that experienced the highest year-over-year price growth from January 2015-January 2016 are; Washington (+11.6%), Colorado (+10.9%), Oregon (+10%), Florida (+9.1%), and Idaho (+8.4%).

“The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables,” the firm said in a release. “Values are derived from state-level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state.”