Home Prices Expected To Rise Through 2017

Home Prices Expected to Rise at least 3.3 Percent Annually though 2017. Both home prices and home sales volumes increased steadily last year, making 2012 the first positive year for both prices and sales since the housing market crash, excluding gains induced by the home buyer tax credits in 2009 and 2010. Actually 2012 was the first year since 1997 that the housing market has resembled something recognizable as normal. For the past 15 years, home price changes and sales volumes have either been boosted by a bubble mentality or crushed by crash psychology. The recovery in home prices has been solid and broad-based and is expected to grow at an annualized rate 0.6 percent through the third quarter of this year, then gain momentum. Prices are projected to grow 3.7 percent between the third quarters of 2013 and 2014 until settling down to 3.3 percent annual increases over the next three years according to Fiserv, a financial services technology provider using data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.