The housing market just keeps getting worse for buyers. Prices haven't gone up this fast in at least 45 years.

• CoreLogic's latest data showed home prices rose the most in the 45-year history of its price index.
• The data provider cited pandemic factors and higher household formation.

US home-price growth is surging. That's good news for homeowners, bad news for homebuyers, and especially bad news for millennials.

Between October 2020 and October 2021, the average price of an American home went up 18%, according to CoreLogic's Home Price Index, which has been the definitive source for the US housing market for 45 years. That's the biggest increase in those 45 years.

There's reason to believe that the market will be calming down soon, CoreLogic said, highlighting that month-over-month growth slowed to 1.3%, down from its peak of 2.3% in April. This portends a more approachable market in the future for homebuyers. The data provider predicted home prices would increase 2.5% between October 2021 and October 2022 as financial concerns deterred buyers and more houses entered the market.

"New household formation, investor purchases and pandemic-related factors driving demand for the limited supply of available for-sale homes continues to propel the upward spiral of US home prices," CoreLogic CEO Frank Martell said in a statement. "However, we expect home price growth to moderate over the near term as many buyers take a break for the holidays."

The states that experienced the highest home-price increases in this period were Arizona, Idaho, and Utah. Each had surges of more than 24%, according to CoreLogic's data.

These record price increases are good news for the homeowners. US homeowner equity increased 31% in last year's third quarter, adding $3.2 trillion to Americans' wealth, or about $56,700 per borrower.

But they're bad news for all the younger buyers looking to become homeowners. Millennials have had a rough experience with the economy, going through two recessions before their oldest members turned 40 and two housing crises. Now, they've become the slowest generation in American history to become homeowners.

But they've been trying to change that this year, despite the surge in housing prices.

Despite historic price growth, younger buyers are still vying for homeownership

Despite the record unaffordability of the housing market, half the respondents in every age bracket of CoreLogic's consumer survey said they wanted to own homes. The desire is there, even if the market isn't.

This year, millennials applied for more mortgages than any other generation. Fifty-one percent of mortgage applications were submitted by those between the ages of 26 and 41, a CoreLogic report found last month. Factors such as the increased popularity of online homebuying and digital-first lending may have played role in this.

Despite the anticipated eventual return to normal, the pandemic is expected to permanently raise the floor for US home prices. In their November housing forecast, economists at Fannie Mae predicted that the median price of a previously owned home would surpass $400,000 by the middle of 2023. The firm said the median new-home price would likely hit a record high of $464,000 by the end of 2023, roughly $100,000 higher than it was at the start of 2021.

Younger demographics may be plowing ahead with homeownership, but the pandemic-era market is the newest in a series of financial obstacles that has plagued millennials since their coming of age.