Home prices continue rising, CoreLogic finds, but the geographic drivers of the increases may be shifting.

Home prices continued to show signs of improvement in July, according to the latest Home Price Index report from CoreLogic. Nationwide, home prices, including distressed sales, which factor in short sales and REO transactions, increased an impressive 7.4 percent, marking 29 months of consecutive year-over-year gains.

In Houston, local price increases eclipsed the national market, with single-family home sales, including distressed, rising 11.8 percent year-over-year, and excluding distressed, 10.6 percent. Similarly, Texas’ total price gains managed to outpace overall U.S. figures, with home prices, including distressed, rising 8.7 percent year-over-year, and, excluding distressed, rising 8.3 percent.

Increases for Everyone

In its report, CoreLogic goes on to further diagnose the national market using current home price figures and projections to determine that:

• Home prices, excluding distressed, increased 6.8 percent in July 2014 compared to July 2013. Month-over-month, however, prices increased only 1.1 percent.
• In July, excluding distressed, home prices rose year-over-over in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
• CoreLogic projects that home prices, including distressed, will increase 0.6 percent month-over-month from July to August, and increase 5.7 percent by this time next year.

Moving in the Right Direction, Still

Through even a cursory examination of CoreLogic’s findings, it’s easy to determine that, overall, the ascent of home prices, compared to earlier in the year, are slowing, but Sam Khater, the group’s deputy chief economist, points out that while prices moderating nationwide, the geographic drivers of price increases are shifting.

“Entering this year, prices were led by western and southern states, he says. “But over the last few months, northeastern and midwestern states are migrating to the forefront of home price rankings.”

Still, while the level of increases is largely reflective of location, the fact remains that prices are still rising throughout the nation.

“Home prices continued to march higher across much of the U.S. in July,” Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, says. “Most states are reaching price levels not seen since the boom year of 2006. Our data indicates that this tend will continue, with more states hitting new all-time peaks this year and into 2015 as the recovery continues.”