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U.S. Home Prices Rose 6.9% in August, Back to 2006 Peak Level

Washington and Utah saw double-digit gains, CoreLogic finds

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Washington state home prices saw 13% increase in August year-over-year, the biggest price growth across the country.

Spaces Images/Getty Images
Washington state home prices saw 13% increase in August year-over-year, the biggest price growth across the country.
Spaces Images/Getty Images

U.S. national home prices increased, on average, 6.9% year-over-year in August to a peak level last seen in April 2006, led by a double-digit gain in Washington and Utah and positive growth across all other states except West Virginia, according to a new CoreLogic report.

Home prices in Washington and Utah increased 13% and 11.2% respectively in August compared to a year ago, according to the Home Price Index released Tuesday by CoreLogic, a real estate data and analytics company.

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Both New York and California outperformed the national average, with home prices rising 7.9% and 7.1%, respectively. West Virginia was the only state experiencing negative price growth, with prices dropping 1.7% year-over-year in August.

At the metro level, CoreLogic data show that the strongest performers were concentrated on the West Coast, including Las Vegas (8.4%), Denver (8.3%), San Francisco (7.7%), San Diego (7.4%) and Los Angeles (6.9%).

Out of the 100 largest metropolitan areas (based on the number of homes for sale), 34% of cities had overvalued housing stock as of August. And nearly half of the top 50 markets were overvalued, according to Frank Martell, president and chief executive of CoreLogic.

"The lack of real estate affordability has spread beyond the typically expensive coasts into the interior of the nation, hitting cities such as Denver, Nashville, Austin and Dallas," Mr. Martell said in a news release.

Over the last three years, the CoreLogic National Price Index has been growing between 5% and 7% annually.

"While growth in home sales has stalled due to a lack of inventory during the last few months, the tight inventory has actually helped stabilize price growth," Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic said in the report.

CoreLogic predicts home prices to increase about 5% by next August. On a month-over-month basis, home prices are expected to increase by 0.1% from August 2017 to September 2017. August’s price index was 0.9% higher compared to July.