IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Home prices increased five percent in December year-over-year, according to data released Tuesday.
That marked the 34th consecutive month that national home prices have been up compared with the previous year, reported Irvine-based CoreLogic Inc., a leading provider of property information and data services.
That figure includes distressed sales, meaning a property in foreclosure or being sold by its mortgagee.
The Inland Empire ranked fourth among major metropolitan areas with the highest jump in housing prices in December: up 6.5 percent including distressed sales and 5.9 percent not counting them, according to CoreLogic.
Houston led all markets with 10 percent and nine percent increases, respectively. California was seventh among states, with seven percent and 6.6 percent increases, respectively.
For all of 2014, single-family home prices increased 7.4 percent, down from an 11.1 percent increase in 2013. Prices are expected to rise slowly during the first part of 2015, then pick up steam as low inventories and more first-time buyers apply pressure to the market and drive up prices, CoreLogic predicted.
