MHN Online
CoreLogic reported on Tuesday that U.S. home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 12 percent in January 2014 compared to December 2013. January marks the 23nd consecutive month of year-over-year home price gains, according to the company, which always reports its findings a week after the Case-Shiller numbers, though they cover a more recent month (the latest Case-Shiller covered home prices as of December).
Excluding distressed sales, home prices increased by 9.8 percent year over year in January, and 0.7 percent month over month. Distressed sales include both short sales and REOs, and aren’t nearly the factor in home prices that they were only a few years ago.
Despite gains in December, and during 2013, home prices nationwide remain 17.3 percent below their peak, which was set in April 2006, according to CoreLogic. “Polar vortices and a string of snowstorms did not manage to weaken house price appreciation in January,” Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement. “The last time January month-over-month and year-over-year price appreciation was this strong was at the height of the housing bubble in 2006.”
Wall Street got some of its mojo back on Tuesday, with investors seemingly shrugging off worries about the Ukraine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 227.85 points, or 1.41 percent, while the S&P 500 was up 1.53 percent and the Nasdaq advanced 1.75 percent.
