Fed agency sees home prices rising 3 percent annually

Home prices are expected to continue their trajectory upward, projected to rise 3.7 percent between the third quarters of 2013 and 2014, according to Fiserv, which used data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency for its projection.

Following the third quarter of 2014, Fiserv predicts home prices to rise an average of 3.3 percent annually over the next three years.

“Although some recent real estate activity has been speculative, it seems as if buyers have more realistic expectations about housing market returns after having lived through the largest housing market crash in U.S. history,” said David Stiff, Fiserv’s chief economist. “Last year 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.”

In 1997, home prices grew at a 3 percent rate, Stiff said, but from 1998 to 2006, prices started soaring above 5 percent and even saw double-digit increases in some of those years.

By the end of 2013, Fiserv expects that home prices will increase in nearly every U.S. metro area, while some markets may see short-term double-digit price increases.