Half of Homes Past Pre-Recession Values

Half of the homes—50.4 percent—in the nation are past their peaks prior to the recession, with 21 of the 35 largest markets at the milestone value, according to the June Zillow® Real Estate Market Report. Based on the Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), in June, home prices were up 8.3 percent year-over-year, to a median nationally of $217,300.

Despite half of markets rebounding, the recovery has been uneven, says Aaron Terrazas, senior economist at Zillow.

“Even a decade after the 2008 financial crisis, and five-plus years into the recovery, it’s clear that the housing boom and bust was felt very differently in various markets—and is still being felt today in many,” Terrazas says. “In markets like Las Vegas that got farthest ahead of themselves during the boom, and consequently fell the most, a large majority of homes are still not worth as much today as they were a decade ago—but in markets like Denver that were more stable a decade ago, many more homes are worth more now than ever before.”

In Denver, 99.6 percent of homes are at or beyond their peak prior to the recession, while in Las Vegas, 0.8 percent are the same, according to the report. Denver mirrors parts of Texas, where the majority of properties have recovered: in Austin, 98.7 percent; in Dallas-Fort Worth, 97.7 percent; and in San Antonio, 98.8 percent. The areas that align more with Las Vegas include Baltimore (8.7 percent), Orlando (5.4 percent) and Riverside, Calif. (6.5 percent), where a fraction of homes have recouped value.

“Despite widespread and consistent home value growth today, the scars of the recession still run deep for millions of longer-term U.S. homeowners, and it may take years of growth for their home to regain the value lost a decade ago,” says Terrazas.

According to the Zillow Rent Index (ZRI), in June, rents rose 1.3 percent year-over-year, to a median $1,440.

“While stabilizing growth in rents is likely a relief for those renters saving to become homeowners, many of those would-be buyers in a number of the nation’s hottest markets will be contending with home prices that are as high as they’ve ever been,” Terrazas says.