The weakness in home sales during the spring buying season “is clearly signaling a slowdown in price appreciation” data aggregator CoreLogic reported today.
National home prices were up 10.5 percent in April from a year ago, the slowest rate of appreciation in 14 months. However, continued inventory shortages in many markets are expected to drive prices up over the year ahead, but at only about half the rate as the year behind.
CoreLogic is projecting that national home prices will grow by 6.3 percent during the year ending April 2015.
At the state level, Colorado, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming saw home prices hit new peaks in April, and 23 states and the District of Columbia are at or within 10 percent of their peak home price appreciation.
The five states with the highest home price appreciation were: California (15.6 percent), Nevada (14.8 percent), Hawaii (14.1 percent), Oregon (11.8 percent) and Michigan (11.3 percent).
The five states with the largest peak-to-current price declines were Nevada (-38.6 percent), Florida (-34.5 percent), Arizona (-29.5 percent), Rhode Island (-28.8 percent) and West Virginia (-24.2 percent).
Among the top 100 metro markets by population, only five did not see price gains: Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut; Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wisconsin; Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, Arkansas; Worcester, Massachusetts-Connecticut; New Haven-Milford, Connecticut.
