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Home prices across the country in the first half of 2019, grew at their slowest pace since 2011, according to an analysis of CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI).
The analysis indicated that homes could get more affordable especially in the lowest-tier. While home prices rose 3.4% year-over-year in June, the first-half 2019 home price increase was 2.9%. CoreLogic then analyzed four home-price tiers to determine what kind of housing had seen the most slowdown in home prices in the first six months of 2019.
It found that the while all the four price tiers saw a slowing in price appreciation ranging between 2.2 to 3.4 percentage points compared with a year ago, the lowest price tier homes saw the largest slowdown. This, despite the lowest price tier increasing 5.5% year over year in June 2019, compared with 4.5% for the low- to middle-price tier, 3.8% for the middle- to moderate-price tier, and 2.8% for the high-price tier.
"The overall HPI has increased on a year-over-year basis every month for seven years (since February 2012) and has gained 61.4% since hitting bottom in March 2011," Molly Boesel, Principal, Economist, Office of the Chief Economist at CoreLogic wrote on the company's blog. "As of June 2019, the overall HPI was 8.5% higher than its pre-crisis peak in April 2006. Adjusted for inflation, U.S. home prices increased 2.7% year over year in June 2019 and were 11.4% below their peak."
Looking at the states where home price appreciation was the highest, the analysis found that Idaho led the pack. In fact, this Midwest state has been leading home price appreciation for nine straight months and had an annual appreciation of 9.9% this June.
"Prices in 40 states (including the District of Columbia) have risen above their nominal pre-crisis peaks. Of the seven states that had larger peak-to-trough declines than the national average, California, Idaho, and Michigan have surpassed their nominal pre-crisis peaks as of June 2019," Boesel said.
The only three states to show a decline in home price appreciation were South Dakota, which saw a depreciation of 4.7% followed by Connecticut (0.4%) and Delaware (0.2%).
