Family house prices in the US have risen again – and although the rate of increase is slowing, year-on-year values have gone up for the 43rd month in a row.
The latest data shows a price hike of 0.6% in September, giving an average annual improvement of 6.4%, according to property and real estate consultancy CoreLogic.
However, despite the climb out of the red, house prices remain 7% below their peak level seen in April 2006 and are unlikely to go back into the black until May 2017, says the company.
The monthly change of 0.6% includes distressed home sales.
Stripping out distressed sales, the index was 6.1% up.
Prices dipping back into the red
The firm’s analysts predict that the October statistics will drop into the red for the first time since February 2012.
Including distressed sales, the figure is expected to be -0.01%, and excluding them, average house prices should remain static.
The dip will pull the year-on-year increase down to 4.7% including distressed sales and 4.8% without them, says the firm.
“House prices were volatile for a decade, but remained stable for the past 15 months,” said a spokesman for the company.
“Increases have ranged between 4.5% and 6.5% year-on-year. That volatility seems to have settled and the market has settled into a long term trend rather boom then bust, which is a good indicator that prices have readjusted to more or less the right level.”
Home prices state-by-state
Looking at the figures in more detail, the five states with the largest year-on-year gains including distress home sales were Colorado (10.4%), Washington (10%), Oregon (9.1%), New York (9%) and Nevada (8.9%).
Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the largest year-on-year increase in values were Colorado (10.3%), New York (9.7%), Washington (9.4%), Oregon (8.9%) and South Dakota (8.5%).
For buyers looking for homes with bargain prices, the five states furthest of their April 2006 peak are Nevada (-30.4%), Florida (-28.5%), Arizona (-25.3%), Rhode Island (-23.6%) and Maryland (-20.2%).
Only two states posted prices lower in September than 12 months earlier – Louisiana (-0.1%) and Mississippi (-0.88%).
Download the full US house price report for September 2015
