Home prices across the U.S., including distressed sales, rose 6.9% on an annual basis in April and posted a monthly increase of 1.6%, according to CoreLogic's home price index.
Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, said that home-buying activity was prompted by mortgage rates falling to their lowest level since November of last year. He added that some metropolitan areas have seen rising demand with multiple bids on homes for sale. The index identifies Denver-Aurora-Lakewood in Colorado and Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise in Nevada with the highest 12-month HPI change year over year. CoreLogic's President and CEO Frank Martell said that the West posted the strongest single-family home price increases, with double-digit gains registered in Washington and Utah.
The CoreLogic HPI Forecast projects home prices to increase by an annual rate of 5.1% heading to April 2018 and by a monthly rate of 0.7%.