Mortgage News

News

CoreLogic: June annual home price jump largest since 1979

According to June’s CoreLogic Home Price Insights (HPI) report, home prices nationwide jumped 17.2% year over year, continuing the streak of torrid price growth fueled by a mix of market fundamentals.

“Home prices have been rising in the mid-single digits for some years now,” said Frank Martell, CEO and president of CoreLogic. “The recent surge to double-digit price jumps reflect the convergence of exceptional demand and persistent low supply.”

June’s annual price growth is the highest recorded by CoreLogic since 1979, although the figure is somewhat artificially influenced by the slowdown in homebuying activity last summer due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Month over month, prices increased by 2.3%.

The pandemic continues to have an outsized impact on buyer behaviors, especially with cases of the Delta variant now growing in many parts of the country.

For example, seventy-three percent of consumers indicated that stay-at-home orders helped them save more money — cash reserves that have helped prospective homebuyers stay in the market despite skyrocketing prices causing affordability challenges. And low-density areas and residences with more room, which grew in popularity as Americans sought to avoid tight spaces for fear of COVID transmission, remain very much in demand.

“Communities with single-family detached houses fill this need,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Detached homes had the highest annual [price] growth in June since the inception of the CoreLogic Home Price Index in 1976.”

Moving forward, CoreLogic projects a 3.2% year-over-year gain in home prices from June 2021 to June 2022 as more supply hits the market. However, in the short term, more large home price hikes could be coming.

“With plenty of cash on the sidelines, along with very low mortgage rates, prices are heading up and affordability will become a more acute issue for the foreseeable future,” Martell said.

Author

More Headlines