Home prices continue on upward trend

Year-to-year, home prices increased 7 percent in November 2017.

This is the fourth month in a row home prices have seen increases higher than 6 percent year-to-year, according to CoreLogic’s Home Price Index for November 2017. Month-to-month, home prices rose 1 percent from October to November 2017. CoreLogic predicts that home prices will increase nationally 4.2 percent from November 2017 to November 2018, but decrease 0.4 percent from November to December 2017.

“Rising home prices are good news for homesellers, but add to to the challenges that homebuyers face. Growing numbers of first-time buyers find limited for-sale inventory for lower-priced homes, leading to both higher rate of price growth for ‘starter’ homes and further erosion of affordability,” Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic said.

In Pennsylvania, home prices increased only 3.4 percent from November 2016 to November 2017. CoreLogic predicts home prices in the commonwealth will meet the national average of 4.2 percent in increases in November 2018. Month-to-month, home prices decreased 0.3 percent from October 2017 to November 2017, and are expected to remain the same for December 2017. Properties in Pennsylvania are mostly undervalued, with a few skewing toward normal prices. However, homes in the State College and Bloomsburg-Berwick area are considered overvalued, and have been for some time.

“Without a significant surge in new building and affordable housign stock, the relatively high level of growth in home prices of recent years will continue in most markets. Although policymakers are increasingly looking for ways to address the lack of affordable housing, much more needs to be done to see a significant improvement over the medium term,” Frank Martell, president of CEO of CoreLogic said.