National HPI Inches Closer to June 2006 Peak

Black Knight Financial Services' Data and Analytics division released its May 2015 Home Price Index (HPI) report. The report, which examines residential real estate transactions found that U.S. home prices were up 1.1 percent in May, increasing 5.1 percent on a year-over-year basis.

The report also noted that at $251,000, the national level HPI only 6.5 percent off its peak of $268,000 in June 2006. However, the HPI has increased by over 25 percent from the market bottom in January 2012.

California led the largest states with the highest home price appreciation at 1.1 percent, the report says. Texas followed with a monthly HPI change of 0.9 percent, Florida at 1.1 percent, New York at 1.8 percent, and Illinois at 1.1 percent.

According to Black Knight, New York City, New York led the largest metros the report examined with the highest home price appreciation at 1.9 percent month-over-month and a year-over-year change of 6.9 percent. The current HPI value in New York City is $443,000.

Los Angeles, California and Chicago, Illinois tied for second and third with 1.1 monthly percent appreciation. Dallas and Houston finished up the top five with price appreciations of 1 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

Of all the nation’s metros tracked by the Black Knight HPI, Janesville, Wisconsin saw the greatest monthly appreciation at 3 percent, while Tucson, Arizona saw no appreciation at all.

Among all the states that the HPI examined, New York experienced 1.8 percent monthly appreciation at 1.8 percent, and Hawaii had the lowest at 0.3 percent.

New Mexico accounted for 8 of the 10 lowest appreciation rates among all metros in the
U.S, according to the HPI report. In addition, among the 20 largest states by population, New York, Tennessee, and Texas all hit new peaks in May. California leads the 20 largest states with a 49.3 percent rate of appreciation from the national market bottom.

Earlier this month, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 6.3 percent in May 2015 compared to this time last year, according to CoreLogic’s May 2015 Home Price Index Report (HPI). This made 39 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally.

"The rate of home price appreciation ticked up in May with gains being fairly widely distributed across the country,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Importantly, higher home prices over the past couple of years have spurred increases in new single-family construction. Sales of newly built homes during the first five months of 2015 were up 23 percent from a year ago, and as rising values build equity for homeowners, we expect to see more existing homes offered for sale in the coming year.”

Excluding distressed sales, home prices increased by 6.3 percent in May 2015 compared with May 2014 and increased by 1.4 percent month over month compared with April 2015, according to CoreLogic. The index also found that on a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 1.7 percent in May 2015 compared with April 2015. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia were at or within 10 percent of their peak prices for May. A total of ten states and the District of Columbia reached new home price highs not experienced since January 1976.

"Mortgage rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans remained below 4 percent through May, helping to fuel home-purchase activity," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "Our homes-for-sale listing data shows that markets with high demand and limited supply, such as San Francisco, are recording double-digit appreciation rates over the past year."

Click here to view Black Knight Financial Services' May 2015 Home Price Index report.