Home prices build to new peaks in dozens of U.S. markets

As U.S. home prices begin to edge up after largely falling for years, prices in a smattering of cities are already at all-time highs, new data show.

More than 100 metropolitan areas hit their peak home prices in July and a few did in June, according to data through July from mortgage tracker Lender Processing Services. Those areas include Pittsburgh and Anchorage. Another 50 areas are within 2 percent of their previous peaks, LPS’ home price index shows, including: Austin; Denver and Boulder, Colo.; Indianapolis; and Portland, Maine.

Many cities whose prices are at or near peaks never experienced the large swings in prices, up and down, that marked the national market’s boom and bust in the past decade, says Mark Zandi, Moody’s Analytics chief economist. Those cities haven’t had as far to come back to hit highs.

Some of the markets have also risen in tandem with growing local economies, especially those built on strong energy and agricultural business.

All told, the 150 areas account for about 7 percent of the nation’s residential housing stock.

Their price trends are a stark contrast with prices in most of the country.

Nationally, July home prices were up 1.2 percent from a year ago. But they were still 30 percent below their 2006 peaks, according to the closely watched Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index of 20 leading cities.

But a look at a wider group of cities illuminates what Realtors have long maintained. National housing prices don’t always reflect what’s going on at a local level, where job growth, housing supply and other regional factors play big roles.

Most of the cities that are hitting highs now are smaller than the nation’s leading cities. Almost half are in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and North Dakota, the data show.

In Texas and Oklahoma, home prices didn’t rise as fast or as much as the U.S. average leading up to the bursting of the housing bubble, Moody’s Analytics’ research reports show.

“We’re been pretty steady in good and bad times,” says Ron Croushore, owner of Prudential Preferred Realty in Pittsburgh. Average prices there have been rising since 2010 after dipping only slightly, Croushore says.

Some of the cities have also been standout job creators. Pittsburgh and Denver, for instance, posted faster job growth than the average for 49 similar size cities from the first quarter of 2010 to the same quarter this year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says. While LPS shows Denver 2 percent off its previous home price peak, Case-Shiller’s latest data show prices 5 percent off their 2006 peak.

Las Vegas prices are still 56 percent off the 2006 peak, LPS says. Other cities with July home prices more than 45 percent off former peaks include Cape Coral, Fla., and Riverside, Stockton and Bakersfield, Calif., LPS’ data show.

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