Despite spring fling, home prices still stumbling
Home prices bounced back somewhat during the spring selling season.
But it wasn't enough to reverse the double dip, with prices still down nationally nearly 8 percent for the year, Clear Capital finds in a newly released report.
The Northeast, and in particular the Greater Boston market, fared considerably better than the rest of the country. The Northeast saw prices rise 5.2 percent this spring over the abysmal winter months. That said, home prices are still down nearly 3 percent from July 2010.
Greater Boston, which the survey defines as a broad stretch encompassing the pricey western suburbs, posted a 7.6 percent gain in home prices, spring over winter. Prices, however, are still down 1.4 percent from July 2010.
The New York metro area fared even better. Home prices rose 6.7 percent in the spring, for a net gain, year over year, of 1.5 percent.
Still, as far as home prices go, this may be as good as it gets this year. We are now in the doldrums of the summer market, and if you couldn't find a buyer this spring, you are either looking at price reduction or pulling your home off the market.
The fall, in, turn, may see another round of price reductions.
It's no coincidence the Northeast and Greater Boston have fared better - there is a direct correlation between the housing market and the economy. While these are hardly boom times right now anywhere, Greater Boston's high-tech, biotech, financial services and health care dominated economy has rebounded better than most.
Yet how long can that last with the national economic outlook growing darker by the day?
As the economy goes, so goes the housing market, especially here in the Boston area.
