4th Quarter 2012 United States Housing Prices are Up and to continue appear to be strong into 2013!

Ken Fears, Manager of Regional Economics of the National Association of Realtors, On March 7, 2013, in Did You Know, Economist Commentaries, provides the 2012 Year end Update on US Housing prices:

• 2012 began with atypically strong home sales, which carried through the entire year. As a result, inventories declined and price appreciation took off.
• Over the 4-quarter period ending in December, 131 markets or 88% of those monitored by NAR Research experienced rising median home prices.
• Of the top ten, the majority were in states experiencing a price rebound after a sharp downturn in the wake of the subprime crisis.
• While Nevada, California, Arizona and Florida all experienced sharp prices gains, several markets in the middle of the country, including Akron and Detroit, have also benefited from stable employment, record low mortgage rates and resurgent consumer confidence.

The good news on US Housing Prices continues in January 2013:
According to the respected source, CoreLogic HPI [Housing Price Index], stated that their HPI (includes distressed sales) “rose 0.7% in January after rising 0.4% in December.”

Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, shared: “With these gains, the housing market is poised to enter the spring selling season on sound footing.”

Economist Fleming, further pointed out: “Overall, the HPI is up 9.7% from January 2012, which represents the biggest annual increase [in the US HPI] since April 2006.”

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