The cost of an average home in the United States increased by more than $200 a week in the past year, according to new research.
That’s an equity increase of $11,000 for every homeowner in a year.
House prices in the US have only headed up for the past five years, adding $13 trillion to national wealth, says house price data analyst CoreLogic.
The latest figures show that prices increased by 6.3% in the year to the end of September 2016.
Month on month, the rise was 1.1% for all sales.
The forecast for next October is a 0.3% monthly increase and 5.2% annual rise.
Equity doubles in five years
“Home equity wealth has doubled in the last five years to $13 trillion, largely because of the recovery in home prices,” said Dr Frank Nothaft, the firm’s chief economist.
“Nationwide during the past year, the average gain in house wealth was about $11,000 for each homeowner, but the number varies geographically.”
The statistics also show that house prices have now gone up for 56 months in a row, but average prices are still 5.2% less than the peak recorded in April 2006.
Homes in 15 states have already surpassed the April 2006 peak.
Prices are predicted to climb back to the peak in October 2017, which means the market has taken a decade to rebound since the credit downturn.
Figures in detail
The five states with the largest price growth in the past 12 months including distressed sales, were:
- Washington (10.3%)
- Oregon (10.1%)
- Colorado (8.6%)
- Utah (7.8%)
- Idaho (7.7%)
The five states farthest away from their April 2006 peak prices are:
- Nevada (-31.4%)
- Florida (-22.5%)
- Arizona (-22.0%)
- Connecticut (-19.1%)
- Maryland (-18.7%)
Two states returned price drops in September – Alaska (-0.3%) and Connecticut (-1.4%).
The analysis also rates some metropolitan areas as overvalued as house prices outstrip predicted values.
These include Denver, Colorado; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, Miami and Washington DC.
In a separate report looking at the US property market, CoreLogic explains around 3.6 million homeowners, or 7% of the market, are still in negative equity even though the value of single family homes as soared by 40% since June 2011.
