Real Estate Investing Blog

10 Cities Where Real Estate Is Surging Again

December 16th, 2009 by Marco Santarelli

Housing prices have taken a beating over the last few years all around the country. However, a few major cities have finally hit bottom and are on their way back.

The question that some are asking now is whether the rebound is temporary, or a clear sign that those markets have come back from their trough.

Here are ten major cities that are clearly on the mend:

City / Market	Rebound off the Bottom	2009 Bottom	Y/Y Change (Aug ’09)	Monthly Change (Aug ’09)
Minneapolis, Minnesota	12.94%	April	- 14%	3.2%
San Francisco, California	12.5%	March	- 13%	2.8%
Cleveland, Ohio	10.9%	March	- 3%	0.5%
Denver, Colorado	8.19%	February	- 2%	1.0%
Dallas, Texas	8.10%	February	- 1%	0.2%
Washington, D. C.	7.79%	March	- 8%	1.4%
Boston, Massachusetts	6.94%	March	- 4%	1.0%
Chicago, Illinois	6.75%	April	- 13%	2.7%
San Diego, California	6.17%	April	- 9%	1.6%
Atlanta, Georgia	5.82%	March	11%	1.0%

A large percentage of the sales activity today is coming from first-time home buyers and investors. In some markets this activity makes up over 75% of the total sales volume.

Remember that job growth is the primary driver of housing demand. And job growth translates into more people with incomes who can buy or rent homes. These markets have not been affected as much by the high unemployment we see in other parts of the country.

If you are a real estate investor sitting on the sidelines waiting for a bottom then this may be the nudge you need to get up and start investing. There are a large number of prudent real estate investing opportunities available today with historically low interest rates to boot!

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Comment by Justin

December 16th, 2009 at 7:33 am

I completely agree with you that large percentile of sales activity today is coming from first-time home buyers and investors. In my view there is no certain period to invest in real estate. Real estate is part of investment which can be treated as investment for future and current use.

Comment by uberVU - social comments

December 16th, 2009 at 8:26 am

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Comment by JKH

December 16th, 2009 at 8:48 am

Why aren’t these numbers cited?

Is it possible to show your readers where the numbers come from or did you do the sampling and the study yourself?

Comment by Marco Santarelli

December 16th, 2009 at 9:09 am

The numbers are derived from the monthly S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index and are seasonally adjusted.

Comment by Pat Liberati

December 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am

How are the New Jersey Shore Markets? I did not see a lot of inventory for single homes between $300,000 and $400,000. Does anyone have current information?

Comment by Andrew Waite

December 16th, 2009 at 5:21 pm

Nice report Marco.

Case-Shiller is not such a stellar source however as they try and impute total market value using just 85,000 home sales pairs in the the entire US. They only use 4500 homes pairs in each of the 20 most dynamic markets that they restrict coverage to.

With around 70,000,000 home baseline in the US this is a .0012 sample. They use recorded data in a three month moving window so are about 90 to 180 days behind what is really happening in each market.

A real economist would laugh these clowns out of the room.

Good investors get ahead of the recorded data.

The better data is the absolute collapse of standing inventory (total expressed as months of supply by dividing by the current sales rate) that can be found for every MLS in the country at http://www.personalrealestateinvestormag.com/uploads/dox/Marketopoly_PREIM_WEB_Oct_2009.pdf.

Comment by MattSmalls

December 24th, 2009 at 1:56 am

Small business ideas like investing in real estate during the time of massive layoffs is a perfect idea. If you want to invest in properties without risk, wholesaling real estate is a simple and profitable way to make money.