Home prices jump 9.7 percent from last year, biggest gain since April 2006

Home prices jump 9.7 percent from last year, biggest gain since April 2006

By Tim Devaney
The Washington Times
Updated: 12:28 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, 2013

U.S. home prices rose in January and may be poised to post further gains in the coming months, according to a new report released Tuesday.

Home prices across the country jumped 9.7 percent from the previous year, for the biggest annual gain since April 2006, according to CoreLogic, a real-estate, data-analysis firm. Housing values ticked up 0.7 percent from December, during a time in which home sales usually slow down for the winter and prices decline. It was the 11th consecutive monthly increase.

The increase followed an 8.3 percent boost in December.

“With these gains, the housing market is poised to enter the spring selling season on sound footing,” CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming said in a statement.

CoreLogic forecasts year-over-year growth of 9.7 percent in February, but a slowdown from January of 0.3 percent.

Prices rose in 48 states — only Delaware and Illinois saw home values decline.

Arizona saw the biggest price increase — of 20.1 percent from the previous year.

Nevada, Idaho, California and Hawaii round out the top five states with price increases.

Phoenix; Los Angeles; Riverside, Calif.; New York and Atlanta were the cities with the biggest increases.

Locally, the Washington metro area saw an uptick in home values of 7.7 percent from the previous year, the sixth highest increase of any metropolitan market.

Home prices jump 9.7 percent from last year, biggest gain since April 2006 - Washington Times

It helps that the government is giving people grants to buy foreclosed homes. When my friends in Las Vegas were forced to short sell their home every one of the people that made an offer were from China, including the people that bought it.