Home prices increased 12 percent in September over the previous year, and are expected to have risen another 12.5 percent in October, according to the latest figures from CoreLogic.
The September increase represents the 19th consecutive monthly year-over-year increase in national home sales.
Month-to-month prices inched up only 0.2 percent from August to September, however.
“September marked the unofficial five-year anniversary of the start of the housing crisis,” CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming said in a statement. Home prices increased in every single state.
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Including distressed sales, the five states that saw the highest home price appreciation were: Nevada (25.3 percent); California (22.5 percent); Arizona (14.6 percent); Georgia (14.4 percent); and Michigan (13.9 percent).
Excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 10.8 percent in September year-over-year, and 0.3 percent month-to-month.
The five-year home price appreciation for all homes was 3.4 percent. Average home prices in nearly half the states are now close to their pre-downturn pricing peaks, although the rate of appreciation has begun to slow.
That’s a good sign, given that the unsustainable recent rates of home price appreciation have some analysts worrying the market may have entered a new bubble. While 90 percent of realtors surveyed in October expect home prices to remain constant or higher in the next year, they expect a median price increase of just 4 percent.
The record-low mortgage rates that helped propel the market in the first half of this yearhave started to increase. A 30-year fixed mortgage currently carries a rate of 4.2 percent, but the Mortgage Bankers Association expects rates to pass 5 percent by this time next year.
