Denver Is the Top Market for Home Price Recovery

Seventy-five metro markets have seen home prices appreciate above their pre-recession peaks, and metro Denver recovered the most growth with home values 91% above its previous high, according to the Home Price Recovery Index from HSH.com.

That’s great if you’re a homeowner watching the market value of your property climb. Not so great if you’re a buyer looking in a market that is becoming more expensive. That scale of price appreciation also is a symptom that Denver isn’t building new homes fast enough compared with Texas markets, which have seen value gains.

“Aside from routinely strong home price appreciation, it’s important to know that the Denver metro’s housing ‘bust’ was relatively short and shallow,” said Keith Gumbinger, the report’s author.

The peak-to-trough for home values was only three years long and the total decline in value was just under 8 percent in metro Denver, he said.

By contrast, a half-dozen large metros have seen home prices more than double from their lows and still not reach the old highs. On that list are Las Vegas, Sacramento, Calif., and Cape Coral, Fla.

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