Seven Towns with Higher Q1 Home Prices

The chart above shows levels for the 10-City and 20-City Home Price Index Composites from Case-Shiller. As of March 2012, average home prices across the United States are back to the late 2002 levels for the 20-City Composite and early 2003 levels for the 10-City Composite. The decline for both figures is approximately 35% through March 2012 from their June/July 2006 peaks. March?EUR??,,????'???s levels are new lows for both figures in the current housing cycle.

The latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed that home prices increased in seven of 20 metropolitan areas surveyed in the first quarter of 2011, offering hope for sustained recovery in these markets.

The seven cities with the greatest annual increase (by percent) in home prices are:

City - Annual Increase (%)
Phoenix, AZ 6.1
Minneapolis, MN 3.3
Denver, CO 2.6
Miami, FL 2.5
Detroit, MI 2.3
Dallas, TX 1.5
Charlotte, NC 0.4

All of these cities except Charlotte and Minneapolis also saw prices increase on a month-to-month basis. A report from the National Association of Realtors on first quarter Turnaround Towns also ranked Phoenix and Miami highly for home price increases and declines in home inventory levels. On the whole, home prices fell 1.9 percent year-over-year from the first quarter of 2011.

The seven cities with the greatest annual decrease (by percent) in home prices are:

City - Annual Decrease (%)
Atlanta, GA 17.7
Las Vegas, NV 7.5
Chicago, IL 7.1
Los Angeles, CA 4.8
San Francisco, CA 3.0
New York, NY 2.8
Portland, OR 2.8