PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island home price index, a broad measure of the movement of single-family property prices, increased 5.4% year over year in July, higher than the national growth rate of 2.5%, CoreLogic Inc. said Tuesday.
Rhode Island’s HPI growth rate was the second-lowest in New England. Vermont led the nation at 8.5%.
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The 2.5% increase nationally in July follows two months of 1.6% gains year over year, CoreLogic said in its report. There have been six consecutive monthly gains nationally, which has driven prices about 5% higher compared with prices in February.
“Annual home price growth regained momentum in July, which mostly reflects strong appreciation from earlier this year,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist for CoreLogic. “That said, high mortgage rates have slowed additional price surges, with monthly increases returning to regular seasonal averages. In other words, home prices are still growing but are in line with historic seasonal expectations.
“Nevertheless, the projection of prolonged higher mortgage rates has dampened price forecasts over the next year, particularly in less-affordable markets. But as there is still an extreme inventory shortage in the Western U.S., home prices in some of those markets should see relatively more upward pressure,” Hepp said.
Nationally, 11 states saw a decline in home price index year over year, including Idaho (-5.7%), Nevada (-4.2%), Montana (-3.6%), Washington, (-3.3%), Arizona (-2.9%), Utah (-2.8%), Oregon (-1.2%), Colorado (-0.6%), Texas (-0.6%), Wyoming (-0.5%) and California (-0.3%).
CoreLogic said that since many of those markets are struggling with inventory shortages, the declines may be short-lived and recent buyer competition will cause prices to rise again. CoreLogic projects that all states that saw year-over-year losses in July will begin posting gains by October.
Here are year-over-year growth rates of the home-price index for the other New England states:
- New Hampshire 7.3%
- Maine 7%
- Connecticut: 6.4%
- Massachusetts: 2.8%
