As Americans gather in their homes for the Thanksgiving holiday, recovering from their various labors, many can give extra thanks for what seems like fresh evidence of a recovery of their home values.
According to Zillow, rising home sales in October marked the 12th consecutive month of real estate price appreciation.
"We've reached a milestone with one full year of monthly home value gains," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist, on the real estate website's blog Tuesday. Humphries dismissed skepticism about foreign money fueling the recovery and foreclosures still to come, stressing lower prices, economic recovery and household formation as reasons for the trend.
"The bottom line is that homes are more affordable now than at any time in recent memory, and buyers are seizing this opportunity," he added.
October price gains were substantial, rising 1.1% nationally from the previous month – the largest price jump in over seven years. Prices also rose by 4.7% over last year's level, the largest gain in over six years.
The home price gains also have the virtue of appearing to be widespread geographically, and in some cases the appreciation was in the double-digits. Zillow reports large October gains in Phoenix (22.3%), San Jose (11.4%) and Denver (10.4%).
The American Enterprise Institute's Mark Perry, writing on his Carpe Diem blog, noted the especially large gains in home sales in Texas cities not counted on the widely followed Case-Shiller composite index of 20 major metropolitan areas: Austin (37%), Houston (35.1%) and San Antonio (19%) all saw a huge gain in the pace of home sales since October 2011.
