Home prices in both the United States and Canada have steadily been increasing over the last several months, according to recent housing market data.

Evidently, CoreLogic Home Price Index recently reported that U.S. home prices have increased in nearly all major cities, and were up 12.4 percent year-over-year in August.

Meanwhile, in Canada, home prices are showing their own gains in terms of home prices!

This is encouraging news for anyone hoping to sell their home soon.

U.S., Canada Home Prices Are On the Rise!

Here are three encouraging signs for both the US housing market and Canadian housing market:

• Home prices increased month-over-month throughout the summer
• The proportion of distressed homes on local markets has been declining
• Home values are seeing year-over-year gains

More specifically, here’s a look at recent activity on the U.S. housing market:

• Home prices increased 1.8 percent between June and July.
• August saw a 0.9 percent increase in home prices
• Nevada saw the largest increase in home prices, with a 25.9 percent year-over-year home price increase.
• Nevada was followed by California, Arizona, Utah and Florida respectively in terms of home price appreciation.
• For metropolitan areas, San Bernandino and Los Angeles in California saw more than a 20 percent year-over-year increase in August. That makes them some of the highest jumpers in price appreciation.
• Out of the 100 largest cities, Akron, Ohio, was the only one to see prices decrease.
• New Mexico had the smallest appreciation, with just a 1.54 percent increase, followed by Vermont, Delaware, West Virginia and Kentucky. Those states had between a 2 and 3 percent increase.
• All of the above statistics factored in distressed sales. But if you take those out, home prices increased by 11.2 percent year-over-year in August 2013
• Still, home prices remain 17.1 percent below their peak in April 2006. 
• Analysts remain optimistic about the future, predicting a 12.7 percent price hike for September.

And here’s a look at what Canadians are seeing in terms of home prices:

• Canadian home prices increased by 0.1 percent between July and August
• Home prices were also 1.8 percent higher than a year earlier

Your National Real Estate Experts

The summer home-buying season ended on a positive note in most markets in Canada and the United States, which is sure to please home sellers everywhere!

And given that analysts are expecting this upward trend to continue, home owners can feel optimistic when they ultimately decide to list their properties!

Check back here soon for updates on housing market trends that may affect you!

The national housing market continues to show great gains lately, according to recent data from the Standard & Poor’s Case/Shiller home price index and other national sources.

Despite some setbacks like rising mortgage rates, the housing market is on an upward swing.

Just Consider These 3 Indicators:

1.) more sellers are listing their homes
2.) more lenders are approving loans
3.) more builders are constructing new developments

This is great news for the entire economy but particularly for interested home sellers!

U.S. Homes for Sale

Here’s an overview of the recent data released by several housing market experts, as originally reported by the New York Times:

• Home values increased 12.4 percent from July 2012 to July 2013
• Year-over-year home prices were up in all 20 cities tracked by Case/Shiller, varying from 3.5 percent in New York to 27.5 percent in Las Vegas.
• Month-to-month home increases were only 0.6 percent, a slowdown from the 1.7 percent increase in April and the 0.9 percent increase in May and June.
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported an 8.8 percent gain in home prices year-over-year.
• Meanwhile, Lennar and KB Home reported plenty of growth and profits in the third quarter, with Lennar seeing a 39 percent increase in 3rd quarter earning year-over-year and KB seeing its profit increase by 7 times year-over-year!
• The number of mortgage applications for home purchases has increased by 7 percent over the last year, although refinance requests have actually decreased 70 percent since early May.
• 2.5 million households regained equity in their homes during the second quarter, according to CoreLogic.

Experts credit the improvements on the housing market to an array of reasons, including people rushing to invest in property before prices continue to rise, lenders gradually relaxing their lending standards, an increase in overall housing inventory, a small inventory of foreclosures on the market and mass home purchasing by investors.

The recent activity on the housing market is sure to benefit the entire country, even if residents aren’t planning on buying or selling a house.

That’s because when the housing market improves, people tend to feel wealthier and thus are more likely to spend money.

This in turn bolsters the greater U.S. economy as a whole!

Still, it should be noted that rising mortgage rates may cool off the housing market slightly in the next few months. Rates have increased from 3.4 percent in January for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to 4.4 percent in July.

But these rates are well below what they’ve been in recent decades!

National Housing Market News that Affects You

As you can see, our national housing market is getting stronger everyday – which is good news for all of us!

Check back here soon for more updates on the current state of the national housing market and how it may affect your home buying and selling efforts.