Though sales petered out in November, they were strong enough to continue America’s steady climb out of price troughs that drove more than 6 million American families into foreclosure.

Among the nation’s top 100 largest markets, 93 markets increased their three month average index point change in November, up 35 markets from October, according to Homes.com, which has been tracking the rebound market-by-market since 2013.

Black Knight Financial Services also found that the gap between peak and current median prices narrowed during the month.  In November, national median prices were only 10.1 percent below the national peak of $206,000 reached in June 2006.

Price Rebounds Resumed in Fourth Quarter

Some 111, or 37% of the nation’s top 300 markets have reached or surpassed their price peaks during the housing boom, and the average rebound percentage of all 300 markets affected by the Great In November was 95.49%, which was slightly higher than 95.29% recorded in October.

Markets that lost the least value during the Great Recession are rebounding the fastest. The markets with a peak-to-trough decline of less than 10% had an average rebound percentage of 106% in November. Of the markets that lost 10% to 20% of value, the average rebound percentage reached 98% of the prior peak price in November. Of the markets that experienced the most severe price decline, the average rebound percentage was 81%.

“Lower interest rates, healthy inventories and moderating prices contributed to an improved rebound picture in November. As more and more markets reach and maintain rebound status, equity continues to be restored to thousands of homeowners and could be an indicator of a much stronger market in 2015,” said David Mele, president of Homes.com.

South Maintains Momentum in Largest Markets

The South continued to dominate recovery with 20 markets seeing rebound percentages greater than 100%. The West came in second place with eight markets over a 100% rebound, according to Homes.com’s data.

In November, the top ten markets with the highest three month average percent change were spread between the South, West and Midwest – four markets in the South and three each in the West and Midwest. The seven markets that did not see increases over a three month average are located in the Northeast region, specifically in the New England area. The three month average percentage for the top ten markets ranged from 0.42% to 0.61%, higher than the 0.23% to 0.40% seen in October’s data. The

Three month average percentage change for all top 100 markets was 0.22%, which is significantly higher than the 0.02% recorded last month.

read more…

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2015/01/climb-to-price-peaks-resumed-in-november/