Deschutes home prices up for year, cool in Dec.

Deschutes County (Bend-Redmond) home prices, including distressed sales, rose by 8.6 percent in 2014, though there was little change seen in the last month of the year, CoreLogic reported Tuesday.

On a month-over-month basis, home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 0.2 percent in December, the analysts reported..

Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices in the Bend-Redmond area increased by 11.4 percent in December 2014 compared to a year ago. On a month-over-month basis, excluding distressed sales, the CoreLogic HPI indicates home prices increased by just 0.1 percent in December.

CoreLogic released its December 2014 CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI ® ) which shows that home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 5 percent in December 2014 compared to a year earlier.

That change represents 34 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, fell by 0.1 percent in December 2014 compared to November 2014.*

Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia are at or within 10 percent of their peak. Three states showed year-over-year home price depreciation, including distressed sales, in December; these states were Maryland (-0.7 percent), Vermont (-0.9 percent) and Connecticut (-2.2 percent).

Excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 4.9 percent in December 2014 compared to December 2013 and increased 0.1percent month over month compared to November 2014. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

The CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices, including distressed sales, are projected to increase 0.1 percent month over month from December 2014 to January 2015. Full-year 2015 (December to December) increase is projected to be 4.8 percent.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices are also expected to increase by 0.1 percent month over month from December 2014 to January 2015 and increase by 4.5 percent year over year from December 2014 to December 2015.

The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a monthly projection of home prices using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. Values are derived from state-level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state.

“For the full year of 2014, home prices increased 7.4 percent, down from an 11.1 percent increase in 2013,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic. “Nationally, home price growth moderated and stabilized at 5 percent the last four months of the year.

“The moderation can be clearly seen at the state level, with Colorado, Texas and New York at the high end of appreciation, ending the year with increases of about 8 percent. This contrasts with previous appreciation rates in the double digits – for instance, Nevada and California, which experienced increases of more than 20 percent earlier in 2014.”

“Nationally, home price appreciation took a pause in November and December 2014 and we expect a slow start to 2015,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “As the year progresses, we expect upward pressure as low inventories and more first-time buyers drive up home prices.”