CoreLogic: June home price increases thwart prospective millennial buyers

A third of millennial renters feel they cannot afford a down payment to buy a home

By Francis Monfort

10 Aug 2018

Home prices increased on month-over-month and year-over-year bases in June, with millennials increasingly identifying affordability as their biggest hurdle to homeownership, according to the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI)

The HPI increased nationally by 6.8% from June 2017 to June. On a month-over-month basis, prices increased by 0.7%.

“The rise in home prices and interest rates over the past year have eroded affordability and are beginning to slow existing home sales in some markets,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said. “For June, we found in CoreLogic public records data that home sales in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California were down 9% and 12%, respectively, from one year earlier. Further increases in home prices and mortgage rates over the next year will likely dampen sales and home-price growth.”

CoreLogic President and CEO Frank Martell said there remains a lot to be done to help first-time buyers become homeowners, noting that one-third of millennial renters say they feel they cannot afford a down payment to buy a home.

“With home prices rising quickly over the past few years and supplies low, first-time homebuyers face ever-growing challenges to find and buy affordable entry-level homes,” Martell said.

Meanwhile, CoreLogic expects the national home-price index to continue to increase by 5.1% on a year-over-year basis from June 2018 to June 2019, according to its HPI Forecast. On a month-over-month basis, home prices are expected to be flat from June to July 2018.