Home prices down slightly in December, still strong for year

Home prices in Salt Lake City fell 0.5 percent from November to December, according to new data released by CoreLogic.

Nonetheless, the prices, which include distressed sales, were up 7.1 percent from December 2014, it said.

CoreLogic also said the Salt Lake City area foreclosure rate among outstanding mortgage loans was 0.41 percent for November 2015, down 0.14 points compared with a year earlier, when the rate was 0.55 percent. Foreclosure activity was lower than the national foreclosure rate, which was 1.17 percent in November 2015, it said.

Also down was the mortgage delinquency rate. CoreLogic data for November put the rate at 1.73 percent for mortgage loans 90 days or more delinquent. That compares with 2.51 percent for November 2014.

Nationally, home prices, including distressed sales, grew 6.3 percent from December 2014 to December 2015 and grew 0.8 percent from November to December last year.

CoreLogic is forecasting a national increase of 5.4 percent on a year-over-year basis from December 2015 to December 2016.

“Nationally, home prices have been rising at a 5 to 6 percent annual rate for more than a year,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “However, local-market growth can vary substantially from that. Some metropolitan areas have had double-digit appreciation, such as Denver and Naples, Florida, while others have had price declines, like New Orleans and Rochester, New York.”

Anand Nallathambi, CoreLogic’s president and chief executive officer, said higher property valuations appear to be driving up single-family construction heading into spring.

“Additional housing stock, especially in urban centers on the coasts such as San Francisco, could help to temper home price growth in the longer term,” Nallathambi said.