IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Nationwide home prices rose nearly six percent in August year-over-year, according to data released Tuesday.
Consumers are continuing to purchase single-family homes despite COVID-19, which has helped keep mortgage rates low, Irvine-based CoreLogic reported in its monthly assessment of U.S housing prices.
Inventory, however, continues to drop, falling 17 percent in August. That has caused prices to rise, as buyers compete for a limited supply of homes.
“Consumers who have not been as financially impacted by the ongoing economic pressures are taking advantage of low mortgage rates to either break into the market, upgrade their living situations or purchase second homes and investment properties,” said Frank Martell, Core Logic’s president and chief executive officer, in the statement. “With heightened activity putting a strain on the current for-sale inventory, strong demand should help spur new homebuilding activity.”
The current trend is not expected to last, mostly because higher unemployment is likely in 2021, which will decrease demand.
In the Inland Empire, home prices were up 6.5 percent in August compared with August 2019, according to CoreLogic.
