Marked monthly and yearly growth in home prices continues to reinforce optimism of the market’s recovery, with the prospects for sustained growth in the foreseeable future.

Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, experienced a year-over-year gain of 8.3% in December 2012 compared to December 2011, according to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) report.  

This increase on a yearly basis marks the biggest gain since May 2006, as well as the tenth consecutive monthly increase in home prices nationally.

“December marked 10 consecutive months of year-over-year home price improvements, and the strongest growth since the height of the last housing boom more than six years ago,” said CoreLogic Chief Economist Mark Fleming.

Including distressed sales, home prices rose 0.4% in December 2012 compared to November 2012.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices still experienced similar growths during December, increasing 7.5% on a year-over-year basis and 0.9% monthly from November 2012. 

Also of note in the HPI is the all but four states experiencing year-over-year price gains. 

On a year-over-year basis with distressed sales included, the states that saw declines in single-family home prices were Pennsylvania (0.5%), New Jersey (0.9%), Illinois (2.7%) and Delaware (3.4%).

The states with the highest home price appreciation over a 12-month basis were Arizona (20.2%), Nevada (15.3%), Idaho (14.6%), California (12.6%), and followed closely by Hawaii (12.5%).

Adding to the prospects of a gainful 2013, CoreLogic notes that of the top 100 statistical areas measured by population, only 16 are showing year-over-year declines in December.

“We are heading into 2013 with home prices on the rebound,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The upward trend in home prices in 2012 was broad based with 46 of 50 states registering gains for the year. All signals point to a continued improvement in the fundamentals underpinning the U.S. housing market recovery.”

Written by Jason Oliva