Central Valley home prices continue to increase year over year, according to the latest data for the month of May from real estate information firm CoreLogic.

In Fresno, home prices, including distressed sales, were up nearly 7 percent for May compared to a year ago, and were also up nearly 1 percent compared to April.

In the Visalia-Porterville region, home prices in May were up 5.5 percent compared to a year ago, but decreased by half a percentage point compared to April.

Prices were up 8.5 percent in May in Madera compared to a year ago, and also increased by half a percentage point compared to April.

In the Hanford-Corcoran region, home prices were up 8.2 percent in May compared to May 2016, while prices also increased by 1.8 percent on a month-over-month basis.

Home prices nationally increased year over year by 6.6 percent from May 2016 to May 2017, and on a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 1.2 percent in May 2017 compared with April 2017.

“The market remained robust with home sales and prices continuing to increase steadily in May,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “While the market is consistently generating home price growth, sales activity is being hindered by a lack of inventory across many markets. This tight inventory is also impacting the rental market where overall single-family rent inflation was 3.1 percent on a year-over-year basis in May of this year compared with May of last year. Rents in the affordable single-family rental segment (defined as properties with rents less than 75 percent of the regional median rent) increased 4.7 percent over the same time, well above the pace of overall inflation.”