Utah home price increase running ahead of nation

Utah home price increases continue to run well above the national average, according to new data released by CoreLogic, a property information and analytics company based in Irvine, California. In the Salt Lake City market, home prices have increased by 9.4 percent since last April compared with a nationwide average of 6.9 percent.

The CoreLogic Home Price Index showed that on a month-over-month basis, Utah prices increased 1.3 percent from March to April, CoreLogic said, All of the prices reported include distressed sales — those including foreclosures and short-sale transactions.

Meanwhile, the CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices nationwide will increase by 5.1 percent on a year-over-year basis from April 2017 to April 2018, and on a month-over-month basis home prices are expected to increase by 0.7 percent from April 2017 to May 2017. The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. Values are derived from state-level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state.

“Mortgage rates in April dipped back to their lowest level since November last year, spurring home-buying activity,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “In some metro areas, there has been a bidding frenzy as multiple contracts are placed on a single home. This has led home-price growth to outpace rent gains. Nationally, home prices were up 6.9 percent over the last year, while rent growth for single-family rental homes recorded a 3 percent rise through April, according to the CoreLogic Single-Family Rental Index.”

“Interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages are down by one-fourth of a percentage point since mid-March, just in time to support the spring home-buying season,” said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Some metro areas have low for-sale inventory, short time-on-market trends and homes that sell above the list price. Geographically, gains were strongest in the West, with Washington and Utah posting double-digit gains.”