Recovery Stretches to Ninth Consecutive Month; 89 Markets Reaching Full Recovery

A recently released market index shows significant improvement in the top 100 markets this month. Results show that 60 of the top 200 midsize markets have fully recovered their loss in home prices due to the housing bubble burst. These advancements bring the total markets with full recovery to 89 (30 percent), up two from the previous month’s 87. While the number of top 100 markets achieving a full recovery increased by one from the previous month to 29, there is also noticeable improvement in the number of midsize markets seeing full recovery.
The December Local Market Index, recently released by Homes.com, is a price performance summary of repeat sales of U.S. properties. Utilizing home pricing data, the Index shows year-over-year gains for single-family properties in all 300 top U.S. Markets.
All of the 200 midsize local markets continued to show gains year-over-year for the single-family index. On a monthly basis, Medford, OR saw the largest gain, with a 1.56 index point jump. For the seventh consecutive month, Anchorage, Alaska and Hilo, Hawaii continue to be the top two performing markets on a year-over-year basis. Anchorage takes the top spot, increasing by 18 percent, followed by Hilo with a more than 15 percent increase. The West continues to dominate the midsize markets, with 9 out of the top 10 markets increasing on an annual basis. On a monthly basis, the top 10 midsize markets are largely split between the South, West, and Midwest regions.
The latest Homes.com Local Market Index reports the following:
• Year-over-year increases in all top 300 markets.
• Monthly increases in 82 of the top 100 markets and in 167 of the 200 midsized markets.
• Los Angeles, California is the top gaining market on a year-over-year basis, with a 27.48 index point or 16.74 percent increase.
• Honolulu, Hawaii is the number two gaining market on a year-over-year basis, with a 26.21 index point gain for the top 100.
• California markets [San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif.; Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.] are the remaining 3 in the top 5. Year-over-year, they increased 25.89, 24.97, and 20.65 index points, respectively for the top 100.
Highlights from the Homes.com Rebound Report for the top 300 markets show:
• 89 markets have made a 100 percent rebound, indicating a complete recovery. This is an increase from 87 markets in the previous reporting period.
• The most recent fully recovered markets are Greensboro-High Point, NC (103.4 percent) and Greeley, CO (102.86 percent).
• The percentage of recovered midsize markets is slightly ahead of the top 100 markets. Out of the 89 markets achieving more than 100 percent rebound this month, 60 or 30 percent are midsize and 29 or 29 percent are top 100.
• Dominating the top 100 rebound markets, the South, with 15, includes markets with energy-based economies in Texas and Oklahoma.
“Despite the holiday season and the early winter storms in most of the nation, the number of top 100 markets to reach or surpass their peak prices at the height of the boom in 2007 increased to 29 markets, according to December’s data,” says Brock MacLean, executive vice president of Homes.com. “With the largest year-over-year housing market price increases in seven years, the U.S. housing market is in a great position to continue making steady gains in 2014.”