Steady employment growth, still low mortgage rates, and diminished numbers of homes available for sale are helping to push home prices higher. A recent report indicates that home prices have risen about five point five percent over the past year – this according to the Standard and Poor’s/Case Shiller twenty city home price index.
In fact, home values climbed at a roughly five percent pace during much of the past year. As reported by the New York Times, the increase in demand for homes has not been accompanied by an increase in sales listings, causing prices to rise meaningfully faster than inflation or wages.
While rising prices may keep some first time buyers out of the market this year, these prospective buyers continue to benefit from low interests, including thirty year fixed mortgage rates that continue to linger around four percent.
San Francisco, Denver, and Portland, Oregon have experienced home price appreciation of roughly eleven percent over the past year. But prices in Chicago and Washington, D.C. are up less than two percent. In most markets, home prices remain below peaks achieved in two thousand and six.
Markets in Cleveland, Detroit, Miami and Tampa continue to be associated with home prices significantly below their pre-recession highs.
