Home prices nationwide increased 7.3 percent year-over-year in October, the fastest 12-month appreciation since April 2014, according to data released Tuesday.
Month-over-month, that figure was 1.1 percent, Irvine-based CoreLogic reported in its monthly assessment of the U.S. housing market.
Prices rose because of increased demand and not enough supply, and that trend could get worse as COVID-19 intensifies. However, housing construction was up in October, and that trend, if it continues, could hold down price growth during the next year.
“Home buyers have been spurred by record-low mortgage rates and an urgency to buy or upgrade to more space, especially as much of the American workforce continues to work from home,” said Frank Martell, CoreLogic’s president and chief executive officer, in the statement. “First-time buyers in particular should remain a big part of next year’s home purchases, as the largest wave of millennials is heading into prime home-buying years.”
In the Inland Empire, home prices rose 7.8 percent in October from exactly one year earlier, according to CoreLogic.