Home Prices in U.S. Grow for 22 Consecutive Months

---

Home prices in the U.S. increased 11 percent in December, compared to the previous year, according to a new report from CoreLogic. The growth in December marked the 22nd consecutive year-over-year increase in national home prices.

Compared to the previous month, home prices decreased by 0.1 percent, including distressed sales. However, excluding distressed sales, prices grew 0.2 percent from November.

Home price growth in 2013 fell just short of previous predictions from CoreLogic. However, the growth was the highest in eight years and provides good prospects for the future.

"Last year, home prices rose 11 percent, the highest rate of annual increase since 2005, and ten states and the District of Columbia reached new all-time price peaks," Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in the report. "We expect the rising prices to attract more sellers, unlocking this pent-up supply, which will have a moderating effect on prices in 2014."

A separate report from CoreLogic last week, using data from Case Shiller, showed home price growth during the third quarter of 2013.

In today's report, Nevada and California led the nation in home price increases, growing 23.9 percent and 19.7 percent respectively, compared to the previous year.

Looking ahead, CoreLogic predicts home prices, including distresses sales, will increase 10.2 percent year-over-year in January. On a monthly basis, they are forecast to grow by 0.8 percent from December 2013.

"The healthy and broad-based gains in home prices in 2013 help set the stage for a continued recovery in the housing sector in 2014," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "After six years of fits and starts, we can now see a clear path to a durable recovery in single-family residential housing across most of the United States."

More from today's report:

• Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were Nevada (+23.9 percent), California (+19.7 percent), Michigan (+14.0 percent), Oregon (+13.7 percent) and Georgia (+12.8 percent).

• Including distressed sales, Arkansas (-1.5 percent), New Mexico (-1.3 percent) and Mississippi (-.2 percent) posted home price depreciation in December 2013.

• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were Nevada (+20 percent), California (+16.2 percent), Idaho (+12.8 percent), Oregon (+11.6 percent) and Florida (+11.5 percent).

• Excluding distressed sales, no states posted home price depreciation in December.

• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to December 2013) was -18.0 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -13.6 percent.

• The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were Nevada (-40.6 percent), Florida (-37.6 percent), Arizona (-31.8 percent), Rhode Island (-30.3 percent) and West Virginia (-25.6 percent).

• Ninety-five of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas measured by population showed year-over-year increases in December 2013.