The Fastest-Rising Home Prices In America: CoreLogic (PHOTOS)

Good news: According to CoreLogic, a California data company, from March 2009 to March 2010 national home prices rose 1.73 percent.

The number might seem surprising given the country's high rates of foreclosure, mortgage delinquency and unemployment. But the increase in home prices indicates that some housing markets badly wounded by the recession are finally starting to heal.

One key driver in the rise in home sales and home prices was the federal government's $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers and $6,500 tax credit for those changing residences, both of which expired in April. While some have called the program "cost-inefficient" and "open to widespread misuse," others have praised its ability to halt months of price declines, and assuage suffering home-owners.

Home prices, however, often don't tell the entire story. Take San Jose, for example, where a near 20 percent drop in the supply of single-family homes drove home prices up 8.3 percent in the first quarter. The area is still flooded with foreclosures (up 40 percent over last year) and mortgage delinquencies. Add on San Jose's 11.7 unemployment rate -- which a recent Harvard University study called the key factor affecting real-estate recovery -- and San Jose's real estate picture becomes less appealing.

But the following data do offer some encouragement that these housing markets are starting to recover.

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Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wisconsin: +.1%

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CoreLogic data show a 0.1 percent increase in home prices from March 2009 to March 2010, despite being called the worst-selling housing market by Forbes in 2010. Forbes later recognized that they "used information incorrectly."

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CoreLogic data show a 0.1 percent increase in home prices from March 2009 to March 2010, despite being called the worst-selling housing market by Forbes in 2010. Forbes later recognized that they "used information incorrectly."

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Comments

[Lady333333]

03:27 AM on 06/16/2010

A home is an investment folks.....It goes up and goes down, but over the long run YOU WIN very nicely....it is an investment....Hello

[stevec2nd]

10:09 AM on 06/16/2010

Only if you get the timing right, which includes whether or not you are actually in a position to buy or not. The single biggest reason for the real estate meltdown was that many people were duped into believing they were in a position to buy a home, duped by all the brokers of sun-prime and exotic mortgages. Most were not in a real position to make that leap. Everyone wants a piece of the pie, and everyone was bombarded by offers from unscrupulous brokers and lenders, who then took their fees and slivered off to trap more victims. Most people who were caught up in this fiasco will never recover, but will spend the rest of their lives as have-nots in a "gotta have it" culture. No one really knows how this will play out in the end, but just like in the Great Depression, there will be long term repercussions.

[Morgantheaxe]

12:35 AM on 06/16/2010

Um yah....all these markets were raped when the bottom fell out of the real estate market. They are going to see the biggest rebounds. Doesnt seem like much when some of those markets lost values in order of four times what they have gained back.

[Beninschenectady]

07:05 PM on 06/15/2010

This article is crap. It's bordering on propaganda. The average home price isn't dropping in most areas.
I'm disappointed to see that home prices in my area are going up, when they are still too high
for regular working people to buy. My city is going to crap because the property taxes are too
high. We, the people that have lived here for decades, can't afford the houses. It has become a wasteland of absentee landlords from NYC area, who think the prices are cheap. Combine that with the rent they collect from Section 8 & us regular people are priced out.
Don't get me wrong, I think Section 8 is a helpful program but I see people driving new SUV's, wearing new clothes, with the latest iPhone living in Section 8 apts. and I can just pay my rent... I don't mind living simply, I choose to. I am just frustrated that landlords who don't live in my city, own property here, command as high a rent as Section 8 will pay and drive up the price of rent and houses for regular people that grew up here.

The mentality that the housing market will save our economy has GOT to end! Shady mortgage practices and this Jenga tower of credit, i.e. mortgages, student loans, credit cards, HAS to change for there to be any real concrete improvement.

Argue all you want but until we, "learn from [our] mistakes, [we] will be doomed to repeat them."

[Nelson Jacobsen]

04:33 PM on 06/15/2010

The same company First American Core Logic supplied data to the Washingtonian for their Tales from BOOM & Bust May publication stating our zip code rose at rate of %29; So the MD and VA zips kinda look be pretty anemic compared to 20016.

[Orland Floria Skip]

09:57 AM on 06/15/2010

Here in Central Florida, we continue to see prices go down and down and down with no end in sight! This is good news for buyers who are knowledgeable and do not believe much of what the other players in this game tell them! You have to always remember, it is your money everyone is talking so giddy about spending and everyone else in the game, such as the real estate agents (all of them), the sellers, the appraisers, the closers, all developers, the state (because they want you to pay too much to push property taxes up) , all county property appraisers and taxers, and everyone else is on the other side of this little game and they all work to make you pay too much! As of June 1, 2010 there are 60,000 backlogged foreclosures in the system here in Central Florida alone! That is just a couple of the counties in Florida! This means that as soon as the legal system can process them and it should take another year, then these 60,000 will be added to the already hugh supply of foreclosures on the market! By this time there could be another 100,000 added to the flood!

[stevec2nd]

11:35 AM on 06/15/2010

Pretty sensible post. The stakeholders are always on the move to spin the facts to their advantage, when the ultimate reality comes down to more basic economic realities: jobs, housing costs, quality of life. After a move to CA for career advancement, we were eventually caught by the Great California Ponzi scheme, Proposition 13. In this scheme, anyone who has owned property for many years enjoys the benefits of increased wealth due to explosive home prices, but pays only a fraction of the explosive costs of California's ever expanding tax needs. Who picks up the tab? Anyone foolish enough to be seduced into moving to CA and buying property. Once you are here, you are trapped, because your debt to asset ratio automatically drops through the floor. Escaping is very difficult.
By the way, we moved here from central Florida, and if we are able to get out of CA, we are hoping the housing situation in central Florida continues so we can eventually return there.
With any luck, the statistics in this article are not total fabrications, and the nation still has enough suckers left to allow us to sell a condo in the bay area and get the heck out of here. California, after all, is known as the land of fruits and nuts, so hopefully it will continue to attract and trap the dreamers who can't see the forest for the trees.

[CEHueber]

09:55 AM on 06/15/2010

Love to read the good news!

Best,
Christine Hueber

[KennebunkportIndependent]

08:01 AM on 06/15/2010

All ten in northern states, and California. What happened to the so-called southern state boom? Just a few years ago, many of these northern cities were in states written off as victims of southern migration and the rust-belt bust. Places like Atlanta were the new cities of the future; where does Atlanta fit on this list??

[Pennsanic]

09:48 AM on 06/15/2010

The pace of commercial and residential building in Atlanta and its 'burbs way exceeded demand. They still have big surpluses.

[Morgantheaxe]

12:39 AM on 06/16/2010

Same in Central Texas where we just moved from. Seeing neighborhoods that were starting at around 200 with new homes starting now at 130. It's not just the inventorys. Its the unbuilt homes out there. There are TONS of empty lots sitting around.

[MadAppraiser]

05:23 AM on 06/15/2010

Are skillful statisticians utilizing mathematical analysis as a means of placing the cart (sales) before the horse (employment)? Domestic employment, and inherited wealth are an authentic basis of defining American economic solvency!

Knowledgeable real estate professionals are very aware of annual real estate sales cycles. The spring months are often a preview of the later summer month's real estate sales activity. The summer months are normally the busiest sales period of the domestic real estate market. Numerical analysis does not supplant comprehension of discipline fundamentals.

[just sayin]

08:32 AM on 06/15/2010

"Knowledgeable real estate professionals are very aware of annual real estate sales cycles."

While I agree with your point, the author seems to have accounted for this by using year-over-year metrics, that is, March 2009 vs. March 2010.

Before we open the champagne, though, let's see where we stand in a few months. The article notes that sales have been helped by the $8K tax credit that expired in April, which seems obvious. What is less obvious, though, is the number of buyers that the credit enticed into buying early. These are buyers whose purchases would ordinarily have been spread out over the next several months or so. Hopefully we haven't had six months of good sales at the expense of the next six months.

[Orland Floria Skip]

05:07 AM on 06/15/2010

You will hear this many times from people in the real estate industry! "Yes, housing is coming back next spring", just like the last 4 springs! People who buy houses now will see their value go down for the next 10 years! The house boom will not come back in the lifetime of ANYONE now alive! cheers!

[MagCynic]

07:23 AM on 06/15/2010

And you know this how? Last time I checked 10 years isn't a life time for the average person.

[luvthyneighbor]

09:07 AM on 06/15/2010

I'm in the real estate industry, but tend to a negative nellie; I'm always brutally honest about where I feel the market is headed. I also live in rural St Louis and have to say the home prices here continue to drop. Builders are still struggling due to lack of buyers, and there are lots of foreclosures, including custom built homes. When I look at local numbers I can't see an increase, but it all depends on how the numbers are minipulated.

[realpolitic]

04:58 AM on 06/15/2010

Well, many of the mid-sized cities seem to be experiencing rising home prices.

[basenji]

04:11 AM on 06/15/2010

In stock market terms, this is called "a suckers rally".

[stevec2nd]

11:39 AM on 06/15/2010

Bring em on, especially out here to CA. We need to them to keep our Prop 13 Ponzi Scheme going.

[Poncia]

04:00 AM on 06/15/2010

Why does this article end with "But the following data do offer some encouragement that these housing markets are starting to recover" and then provides no following data. And where are the photos?
What's up here HuffPo?

[Poncia]

04:14 AM on 06/15/2010

They're back now; thank you.

[sjenk1]

03:11 AM on 06/15/2010

next week we will hear home prices are falling....don't fall into the media trap

[FairProgressive]

02:49 AM on 06/15/2010

most seem like lib areas......

[mikesw]

02:57 AM on 06/15/2010

does that mean high foreclosure rates, mortgage delinquency and unemployment are in "con areas"?

[-swift]

07:25 AM on 06/15/2010

Nevada comes to mind.

[Kirsten Bladh]

09:50 AM on 06/15/2010

Cincinnati? Seriously? It's John Boehner and Jean Schmidt land.

[Carolab]

01:33 AM on 06/15/2010

Some of these markets were severely down so the increase isn't as big a deal as it appears to be.