Home Price Growth Kept A Record Pace In October, But A Cooldown Is Looming

CoreLogic, a real estate data analytics provider, today released its Home Price Index report, highlighting October 2021 data.  

U.S. annual home price growth remained strong at 18% in October, the highest recorded in the 45-year history of the index. Nonetheless, monthly price growth has slowed from its April peak and signals a moderation in price growth that the CoreLogic forecast projects will continue to slow in coming months.

Despite affordability challenges, a recent CoreLogic consumer survey shows that over half of respondents across every age cohort said that owning a home has always been a goal of theirs — further supporting the outlook that consumer desire for homeownership remains.

 “New household formation, investor purchases and pandemic-related factors driving demand for the limited supply of available for-sale homes continue to propel the upward spiral of U.S. home prices,” said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “However, we expect home price growth to moderate over the near term as many buyers take a break for the holidays.”

Top takeaways

Nationally, home prices increased 18% in October 2021, compared to October 2020. On a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 1.3% compared to September 2021.

In October, appreciation of detached properties (19.5%) was 6.6 percentage points higher than that of attached properties (12.9%).

Home price gains are projected to slow to a 2.5% increase by October 2022 as affordability and economic concerns deter some potential buyers and additional for-sale inventory becomes available.

In October, home prices continued to rise sharply in Twin Falls, Idaho, which logged the highest year-over-year increase at 35.8%. For the first time in 2021, Florida made it to the top of the list for home price gains, with Naples logging the second-highest ranking at a 33.5% year-over-year increase.

At the state level, the Mountain West continued to dominate the top spots, with Arizona and Idaho again leading the way with the strongest price growth at 28.8% and 28.7%, respectively, and Utah ranking third at 24.5%.

 “Single-family detached houses remain the preferred home for buyers during the pandemic,” said Nothaft. “This is reflected in the 19.5% annual price rise for detached houses, which marks another record-high for the CoreLogic Home Price Index.”