The Great Recession hit home prices hard in cities throughout the country. Now, 10 years later, home prices have rebounded nationally by +36% on average.
California is home to 50% of the 20 hardest-hit-by-recession cities that have made the strongest rebounds over the last decade. The reason so many California cities have “come back?” California’s booming tech sector, according to a report by Owners.com.
Kevin Karty, vice president of enterprise data at Owners.com, said that California’s improving housing markets can thank its booming tech sector. Most all of these cities experienced huge influxes of people from the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley who were looking for more affordable housing in cities that are relatively drive-able to tech centers for work.
When the recession hit in 2008, Modesto was in dire straits. It had the third highest foreclosure rate in the country and an unemployment rate of 17.5%. Today, Modesto is the blue ribbon winner of the post-housing crisis recovery. Its home prices have increased +114.8%.
Merced CA is right behind Modesto with home prices increasing +114.7% post recession. Interestingly enough, Modesto and Merced’s home prices are still below pre-recession prices, -9.1% and -13.1% respectively.
Cities with smaller and/or mid-sized housing markets that were less hard hit by the recession have had more lackluster rebounds. Karty believes these more muted recoveries are due to cities’ greater distances from major industry/tech hubs.
Top 10 Rebounding Markets
City_____________% Increase_________Pre-Post Peak Change ____
- Modesto CA +114.8% -9.1%*****
- Merced CA +114.7% -13.1%*****
- Reno NV +110.3% +6.0%
- Vallejo-Fairfield CA +107.2% -7.3%
- Stockton-Lodi CA +106.2% -7.9%
- Bend-Redmond OR +102.8% +16.5%*****
- Sunnyvale CA +100.8% +47.1%*****
- Oakland CA +93.0% +28.0%*****
- Yuba City CA +90.8% -0.7%
- 10 Sacramento CA +89.4% +4.3%
Bottom 10 Rebounding Markets
1. Glens Falls NY +7.9% -0.7%
2. Farmington NM +8.6% -4.2%
3. Goldsboro NC +8.8% +1/9%
4. Harrisburg PA +9.0% +1.9%
5. Little Rock AR +9.0% +5.9%
6. El Paso TX +9.4% – 0.9%
7. Danville VA +9.5% +6.4%
8. Bloomington IL +9.5% -0.9%
9. Lewiston MA +9.5% – -11%
10 Peoria IL +9.6% +1.6%
