US home prices up 10% in Colorado and Washington

Home prices in the United States rose for the 46th consecutive month in December. Compared with December of 2014, home prices rose 6.3%, including the sales of distressed properties. The year-over-year November increase was also 6.3%. Month over month, December home prices rose by 0.8% from November prices, which had risen 0.5% over October prices.

Louisiana, Mississippi and New Mexico were the only states to post negative home price changes in December. Including sales of distressed properties, Louisiana prices were down 2.9%, sales prices in Mississippi were down 2.8% and New Mexico prices were down 0.1%. All three were also the only states to experience lower growth in November. The data were released by CoreLogic in its Home Price Index report for December.

Including sales of distressed properties, the five states posting the largest year-over-year price increases in December were Colorado (10.4%), Washington (10.3%), Oregon (9.1%), Idaho (8.6%) and Nevada (8%).

Excluding sales of distressed properties, the five states posting the biggest price increases over the past 12 months were Colorado (9.7%), Washington (9.5%), Oregon (9.3%), New York (8.5%) and Nevada (8.3%).

The five states with the largest remaining peak-tocurrent declines, including distressed transactions, were Nevada (29.8%), Florida (27.8%), Rhode Island (25.7%), Arizona (25.1%) and Connecticut (23.1%). Peak home prices occurred in April 2006 and current prices remain 7.6% below that peak.

CoreLogic’s chief economist said: “Nationally, home prices have been rising at a 5 to 6 percent annual rate for more than a year. However, local-market growth can vary substantially from that. Some metropolitan areas have had double-digit appreciation, such as Denver and Naples, Florida, while others have had price declines, like New Orleans and Rochester, New York.”