Springfield home prices on the incline

The Queen City’s home prices rose in March, according to real estate market tracker CoreLogic.

During the month, prices including distressed sales — which factor in short sales and real-estate owned transactions — moved up 3.9 percent compared with March 2016. Prices also were up 0.9 percent from February, according to a news release.

Comparatively, Missouri home prices increased 5 percent in March from a year earlier, and U.S. prices jumped 7.1 percent.

"A potent mix of strong job gains, household formation, population growth and still-attractive mortgage rates in the face of tight inventories are fueling a continuing surge in home prices across the U.S.," said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, in the release. "Price gains were broad-based with 90 percent of metropolitan areas posting year-over-year gains.”

CoreLogic analysts predict a 4.9 percent increase in U.S. home prices from March 2017 to March 2018.