As a complement to the Local Market Index, Homes.com publishes an exclusive Rebound Report, highlighting how the housing recovery process is unfolding across the country. It measures each market’s peak-to-trough decline in index value, which had been attributed to the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble.
Rising home values in the third quarter saw four more top 100 markets reach full recovery. More than a quarter of the top 100 real estate markets have now fully recovered the value they lost in the housing crash. Nearly half of the remaining markets have recovered 50 percent of their lost value, increasing by four markets from the previous month.
Twenty-two midsized markets showed little to no effect from value lost in the 2007 housing bubble and experienced more stable changes in index values. Half of those 22 bubble-proof markets are from Texas, and more than 70 percent are from energy producing states where typical housing boom-bust scenarios did not occur. The remainder of midsized markets showed 51 markets, or 29 percent, with a 100 percent recovery and 94 markets with a 50 percent or more recovery.
“We found the effects of the housing boom-bust lingering in some areas because of the instability they suffered and the long, steep price slope needed for rebound,” says Brock MacLean, executive vice president of Homes.com. “While these particular markets are improving somewhat, higher rates of negative equity increase risk of foreclosure and can lock move-up buyers—who are also sellers—out of the marketplace, thus slowing overall recovery in certain local areas. Yet other markets that did not experience the bursting bubble to the same degree are in a better position to take full advantage of the recovery. Their prices are appreciating faster, and they are rebounding earlier.
“The important thing to realize is that all markets are in some form of recovery, and different factors contribute to recovery scenarios across the country. With data from the top 300 markets, the Homes.com Local Market Index and Rebound Report analyze trends in local communities where millions of Americans live—key trends missed by other real estate reports.”
