America’s housing market has been reborn from the wreckage of the 2008 crash. Home values plummeted in the bleakest part of the recession. However, the market is soaring in many parts of the U.S.
The country's median home price reached an "all-time high" of $269,000 in 2018, according to USA Today.
Recovery patterns are strongly dependent on geography. Growth is surging in certain housing markets while stagnant or declining in others. Decatur, Illinois, home prices plunged by nearly 10 percent between 2017 and 2018.
Healthy local economies tend to boost demand for real estate. Cities with a growing population and a thriving employment network topped the list of the quickest-growing housing markets.
24/7 Wall Street analyzed data from the National Association of Realtors and singled out housing markets that were declining or growing rapidly.
The three metropolitan areas experiencing significant growth in housing markets are Idaho’s Boise City-Nampa, Nevada’s Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, and California’s San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara.
In the past year, the median home price in Boise and Las Vegas grew by 15.4%. San Jose, which grabbed the spot for the fastest-growing housing market, saw an 18.7% growth in its median home price over the same time period.
The three areas undergoing the most significant decline in their housing markets are Connecticut’s Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, New York’s Elmira and Illinois’ Decatur.
The median home sale price for Bridgeport homes dropped 4.6% between the second quarter of 2017 and the second quarter of 2018.
Decatur’s housing market is shrinking faster than any other in the country. The median home sale price in 2017 for the second quarter was $107,400. For the same period in 2018, the price was $96,900. Unemployment in the area sits at 5.3%.
Decatur is an outlier. According to USA Today: “Nationwide, the median household income rose 4.7 percent over the past year as the median home value rose 5.3 percent.”
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