The mortgage market continues to inch back towards health as according to analytics firm CoreLogic, home prices grew 6.3% year-over-year during May compared with the same month last year.
That represents the 39th straight month that home prices have risen over the previous year, according to CoreLogic's home price index. Prices, including those of distressed properties, rose 1.7% from April of this year.
CoreLogic projects that home prices will show continued increases of 0.9% in June, though the data analysis for that month has not yet been finalized.
"Mortgage rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans remained below 4% through May, helping to fuel home-purchase activity," CoreLogic chief economist Frank Nothaft said in a press release. Nothaft previously held a similar position at Freddie Mac.
"Our homes-for-sale listing data shows that markets with high demand and limited supply, such as San Francisco, are recording double-digit appreciation rates over the past year."
"The rate of home price appreciation ticked up in May with gains being fairly widely distributed across the country. Importantly, higher home prices over the past couple of years have spurred increases in new single-family construction," said CoreLogic's president and CEO Anand Nallathambi in the release.
"Sales of newly built homes during the first five months of 2015 were up 23% from a year ago, and as rising values build equity for homeowners, we expect to see more existing homes offered for sale in the coming year."
The five strongest states in terms of appreciation were South Carolina (10.3%), Colorado (9.8%), Washington (8.8%), Florida (8.7%) and Nevada (8.3%).
Five states also experienced depreciation: Massachusetts (down 4.8%), Connecticut (down 1.8%), Maryland (down 1.5%), Mississippi (down 1.4%) and Louisiana (down 0.8%).
