I managed to pry myself away from the USA vs. Belgium World Cup match for long enough to tell you about the CoreLogic May 2014 HPI Report. Taking time out to write this was more difficult than scoring a goal on Tim Howard. But, this is news you can use, y’all, much like a stiff drink after the first extra time period.
ANYWAY… The report, which measures changes in housing prices for major metropolitan areas both including distressed sales and without, shows a definite cooling in housing price increases year-over-year for the nation. In Dallas, though, we can at least celebrate a return to peak pricing with 8.7 percent in the black from a year ago including distressed sales.
On the flipside, prices in Texas have slowed their meteoric growth, with an 8.9 percent change in HPI over 12 months, 4.4 percent change over three months, and 0.9 percent change from April to May 2014. Still, we’re reaching new highs, according to the report.
“The pace of home price appreciation is cooling of quickly as the weather warms up,” said CoreLogic economist Mark Fleming. “The influences of modestly rising inventory and less-than-expected demand are causing price growth to moderate toward our forecasted expectations.”
Over the past two years, we’ve seen a rebound in housing prices, but tight credit markets are still keeping a lot of first-time homebuyers out of the market. Still, some alternative lenders are experimenting more with subprime loans with at least 30 to 40 percent down in most cases, according to this story from the New York Times. Still, that won’t have nearly the drastic effect that the stated income, no money down loans had on the market.
CoreLogic is predicting that, home prices will only increase 0.8 percent over the next month, a slower pace that may show that we’re well on our way to a more stable housing market. It still does nothing to solve the widening affordability gap many U.S. cities are struggling with, though.
“While the rapid rise in prices over the past two years has lifted many homeowners out of negative equity, it has also become a negative factor in buying decisions for prospective purchasers weighing affordability concerns,” said Anand Nallathambi, CoreLogic CEO. “As we move ahead, a moderation in home price increases over the next 12 months should help cool things down a bit and help keep the housing recovery going.”
