U.S. home prices slipped 0.1% in September, CoreLogic, a national data tracking firm, said today. The decline puts the year-on-year advance at 5.6%. “There has been a clear bifurcation in home price growth for lower-end versus upper-end properties in 2014,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic. “As of September, lower-end prices were up 9.4 percent but upper-end prices were up only 4.5 percent.”
Of the largest metro areas, Houston led the way with 9.9% year-on-year growth, while the once-hot-growing Phoenix area had just 2.8% growth. Arizona home prices are reported at 29.6% below the August 2006 peak. Nationally, home prices are just 12.6% below that peak time. With the CoreLogic forecast for 2015, neither deficit will be made up next year.
“Home prices continue to rise compared with this time last year, but the rate of growth is clearing slowing as we exit 2014,” said the president of CoreLogic. If the positive economic trends experienced in the last few months continue, CoreLogic projects a 5% growth rate next year.
CoreLogic Report Here.
