The Crystal Ball: Twin Cities home prices to increase 5.1% over the next year

Home prices in the Twin Cities are rising in line with the national average, and expected to continue at the same pace over the next year, according to a monthly CoreLogic report.

The latest CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices, including distressed sales, increased 5.2 percent during February at the same pace as the national average. Prices in the Twin Cities are expected to increase another 5.2 percent from February 2015 to February 2016 compared with a 4.8 percent increase nationwide.

The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. CoreLogic chief economist, Frank Nothaft, attributes price gains to a shortage of listings. "Since the second half of 2014, the dwindling supply of affordable inventory has led to stabilization in home price growth with a particular uptick in low-end home price growth over the last few months," he said in an analysis. "From February 2014 to February 2015, low-end home prices increased by 9.3 percent compared to 4.8 percent for high-end home prices, a gap that is three times the average historical difference."