US house prices a mixed bag

The last couple of years have not been kind to the USA real estate markets but recent months have seen property prices begin to settle in many areas.

Foreclosures are still rising in many districts and analysts believe this area of the property arena has still not peaked, banks and lenders have stocks of repossessed residential real estate that are yet to be listed on the open market.

One price index recently reports that of the 20 cities that are regularly tracked 19 have reported price increases, albeit in a lot of cases the increase is less than 1 per cent.

Real estate in California badly hit by the financial downturn have seen a turnaround in the last year; San Francisco property prices grew by more than 18 per cent in the last twelve months and almost 13 per cent growth has been recorded in San Diego.

However two areas still struggling to gain ground in the recovery are Las Vegas and Detroit. Vegas has some way to go before demand catches up with the oversupply available in the city.