Happy days are here again for the housing market with double-digit price gains compared with a year ago. Prices rose at the fastest pace since 2006, before the housing bubble popped. Millions of homeowners who were underwater with their mortgages no longer have that problem. Most housing experts believe the market will continue to improve.
House flipping is back in some local markets, where homebuyers are making bids on almost anything they can find. A large number of homes are still in some stage of foreclosure and investors rather than first-time home buyers make up an outsized chunk of the housing market.
Home prices in cities around the country surged 10.9 percent in the past year to highs last seen at the end of the housing bubble. Particularly in our area the numbers are encouraging, prices reported by our Multiple Listing Service report sale prices up from 3.2% to 6.5% through various counties, closed property sales are up:
Franklin County 16.5 %, Jefferson County 8.17%, St Charles County 22.17% , St Louis County 14.5%
Prices around the country rose the most since April 2006, though in most places they are still well below their peak in 2006, according to the Case-Shiller house price index, which includes data through March 2013.
Phoenix, San Francisco and Las Vegas had the biggest jump in home prices, with increases of more than 20 percent compared with a year ago.
