Home Prices Have Hit Bottom, Zillow Says

Seattle, WA, July 24, 2012 -- National home prices have bottomed and are on the rise, real-estate website firm Zillow said.

“After four months with rising home values and increasingly positive forecast data, it seems clear that the country has hit a bottom in home values,” Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said in a news release.

“The housing recovery is holding together despite lower-than-expected job growth, indicating that it has some organic strength of its own.”

Values of U.S. homes rose 0.2% in the second quarter, compared with the same time period a year ago, marking the first annual increase in values since 2007, Zillow reported.

Zillow predicted a 1.1% increase in home values over the next year. It said values are likely to rise in 67 of the 156 markets in Zillow’s Home Value Forecast.

“Of course, there is still some risk as we look down the foreclosure pipeline and see foreclosure starts picking up. This will translate into more homes on the market by the end of the year, but we think demand will rise to absorb that, particularly in markets where there are acute inventory shortages now,” Humphries said.

“Looking forward, we expect home values to remain relatively flat as the market works through a backlog of foreclosures and high rates of negative equity.”