House prices are still on the up in the USA while builders and realtors are reporting big sales increases as well.
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Year-on-year, the average US house price rose by 6.9% to the end of July 2015, according to property market monitor CoreLogic.
The results gave the US 41 months in a row of rising year-on-year house prices.
At the same time, the National Association of Realtors announced brisk business with sales up 10% in the year and the official Census Bureau released figures showing new home sales surged by 26%.
The CoreLogic survey also found month-by-month house values were up 1.7% in July.
Jobs drive sales
Despite the cheerful figures that show green lights across the board, US house prices are still an average 6.6% below the pre-credit crisis peak in April 2006.
And CoreLogic added a note of caution, pointing out that although prices are rising, they are gaining in value at a slower rate.
The forecast is a 0.5% monthly increase for August and a 4.7% annual increase by the end of July 2016.
“Lower mortgage interest rates and confident pent up demand in the market are supporting a rising home sales market,” said a spokesman for the firm.
“Add to this a better jobs market that is giving younger buyers the chance to form new households and escape the rental market and you can see this will drive house prices for a while longer.”
Best and worst states
The five states with the largest monthly average price rises were:
- Colorado (10.4%)
- Washington (9.9%)
- Nevada (9.1%)
- Hawaii (8.9%)
- Oregon (8.8%)
Those with the highest yearly average price increase were:
- Colorado (10.1%)
- Washington (9.5%)
- Nevada (9.1%)
- Oregon (9.1%)
- New York (9.0%)
The five bargain basement states with property prices the farthest from the April 2006 peak were:
- Nevada (-30.6%)
- Florida (-28.1%)
- Arizona (-25.1%)
- Rhode Island (-24.2%)
- Maryland (-20.2%)
These figures show that although states like Nevada are reporting among the highest monthly and yearly average price increases, the values are starting from a low base as they are still 30% the April 2006 peak.
For investors and expats, this means some of the favourite destination places for retirement and relocation – Las Vegas, Nevada; Orlando and Miami, Florida and Phoenix, Arizona, can still offer some attractive investments.
Austin and Houston, Texas, were the two metropolitan areas with the largest yearly price increases (9.3% and 7.3%); while Baltimore and Boston had the largest price drops.
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