The numbers compare home values nationwide from the past four months - March through June - with the previous three months - December through February.
"The West out-performed all of the regions that we track, came in very strong with a 3.5% quarterly gain, on the year-over-year it's up 4%."
Alex Villacorta is with the Truckee-based house-price tracking
firm Clear Capital, which released the numbers.
California by itself saw a 2.8% quarterly gain and
year-over-year growth of 2%. About one-in-three-homes is still
bank-owned…or an "REO."
Villacorta says one factor that's driving price growth is -
rental rates are increasing and vacancies are decreasing…creating a
demand for more rental inventory and driving up values of homes in
the lower end of the price spectrum.
"There's a lot of distressed inventory out there ready for
tenants to move right in after some repairs. So with that dynamic,
we're really seeing this resurgence of REOs now being a desired
asset. In California we see this especially."
Villacorta projects prices in California will increase another
5% over the next six-months.