House prices expected to go up this year, two Oregon cities to see above-average increase

Oregon – Mortgage rates have recently dropped from their extremely high levels last year. However, a study suggests that in 20 cities across the U.S., house prices might still go up.

According to CoreLogic, a company that analyzes real estate data, there could be a 2.5% increase in home prices across the country by November 2024. In some places, like Redding in California and Fairbanks in Alaska, prices might rise even more, possibly over double.

House purchases expected to grow in coming months

Even though mortgage rates were really high, buying a house remained competitive and expensive. This frustrated many people trying to buy their first home. Dr. Selma Hepp, the Chief Economist at CoreLogic, explained that this is surprising considering how hard it is to afford houses nowadays. But, it’s mainly because there’s a lot of demand for houses, pushing prices up. In areas where there aren’t enough houses for sale, especially new ones, prices went up a lot in 2023.

Here’s a list of the top 20 cities where house prices might increase the most in 2024:

1. Redding, CA – Expected to grow by 7.30%
2. Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA – 6.81%
3. Bremerton-Silverdale, WA – 6.51%
4. Coeur d’Alene, ID – 6.49%
5. Fairbanks, AK – 6.38%
6. Santa Rosa, CA – 6.37%
7. Corvallis, OR – 6.36%
8. Merced, CA – 6.32%
9. Bend-Redmond, OR – 6.29%
10. Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA – 6.20%
11. Grand Junction, CO – 6.09%
12. Longview, WA – 6.07%
13. Pocatello, ID – 6%
14. Casper, WY – 5.99%
15. Walla Walla, WA – 5.88%
16. Lewiston, ID-WA – 5.87%
17. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA – 5.81%
18. Prescott, AZ – 5.70%
19. Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL – 5.67%
20. Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, HI – 5.63%

Also, it seems Florida might see a drop in house prices in some of its markets.

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According to CoreLogic’s data, these are the metro areas most likely to see a decrease in home prices: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL; West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, FL; Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL; Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL; and Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA.

CoreLogic’s predictions are based on detailed real estate data. This includes factors like price changes, how long a property is on the market, type of property, type of loan, and whether the sale was distressed. See more on the CoreLogic methodology here.

For those looking to buy a home, the main problem is still the lack of available houses, even as mortgage rates start to fall.

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Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors, said that prices won’t really go down unless there’s a big increase in the number of houses available.