Recently, S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller released their National Home Price NSA Index which showed that home prices rose 5.9% in January, setting a 31-month high. Their 10-City Composite posted a 5.1% annual increase and the 20-City Composite reported a year-over-year gain of 5.7%. Seattle, Portland, and Denver reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities over each of the last 12 months. In January, Seattle led the way with an 11.3% year-over-year price increase, followed by Portland with 9.7%, and Denver with a 9.2% increase. Twelve cities reported greater price increases in the year ending January 2017 versus the year ending December 2016.
“Housing and home prices continue on a generally positive upward trend…The recent action by the Federal Reserve raising the target for the Fed funds rate by a quarter percentage point is expected to add less than a quarter percentage point to mortgage rates in the near future.” Said David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
