A county-by-county analysis of home prices over the last decade by RealtyTrac shows that most haven’t fully recovered from the housing bust, with prices still down 30 percent or more from peaks in nearly half of all counties analyzed.
RealtyTrac’s analysis showed that picture is rapidly changing, with median prices reaching new peaks this year and last in 315 counties, or 20 percent of the 1,567 counties analyzed. New highs were seen in 43 counties in March alone.
Major population centers hitting new 10-year peaks this year and last included Kings County (Brooklyn), New York; New York County (Manhattan); Travis County, Texas (Austin); Honolulu County, Hawaii; Marion County, Indiana (Indianapolis); San Francisco County, California; Jefferson County, Kentucky (Louisville); Oklahoma County, Oklahoma (Oklahoma City); Davidson County, Tennessee. (Nashville); Kent County, Michigan (Grand Rapids); and Denver County, Colorado.
RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist explains the company’s county-by-county analysis of home prices from January 2004 through March 2014.
But median prices are still at or below peaks in eight out 10 counties — in many places, drastically below. Median prices were down 30 percent or more from peak in 724 counties, or 46 percent of those analyzed.
Major population centers in that category included Cook County, Illinois (Chicago), 37 percent below peak; Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix), 33 percent below peak; Miami-Dade County, Florida (Miami), 42 percent below peak; Riverside County, California, 38 percent below peak; San Bernardino County, California, 43 percent below peak; Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas), 47 percent below peak; Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit), 58 percent below peak; Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, 31 percent below peak; and Cuyahoga County, Ohio (Cleveland), 45 percent below peak.
Median prices were down 15 to 30 percent from peak in 31 counties (34 percent of counties analyzed); 5 to 15 percent in 213 counties (14 percent); and within 5 percent of peak in 99 counties (6 percent).
