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The Markets Where Homes are Most Valuable May Surprise You

priceHome prices continue to rise, with a 9-percent increase year-over-year on average, according to Pro Teck Valuation Services [1].

Releasing its Home Value Forecast in March, the real-estate firm tracked home selling prices from February 2015 to February this year.

Of more than 200 core-based statistical areas (CBSAs), Pro Teck rated just less than a third on average as “hot” or “strong”—a marked improvement on the 14 percent that received the same ratings last year.

The firm highlighted 10 CBSAs for their growth in home sales prices year-over-year. Five areas saw enough improvement in their prices to receive “strong” ratings, with one considered “good” and four others “soft.”

Those rated strong include Cape Coral-Fort Meyers, in Florida; Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, across the Carolinas; Durham-Chapel Hill, in North Carolina; San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, in California; and Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, in Tennessee.

Those areas which Pro Teck rated soft: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Port St. Lucie, in Florida; Salem, Oregon; and Mobile, Alabama.

Florida’s Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island was the lone area rated good by comparison.

With 2,494 sales, Cape Coral-Fort Meyers realized just less than a quarter of growth in prices year-over-year—the highest of any of the CBSAs. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin saw a little less than 15 percent of growth in the same numbers with more than 5,000 sales.

With just 720 sales, by contrast, Mobile’s home prices observed a little more than 13 percent in increases.

“While we call the above our bottom ten, they are much healthier than the bottom ten from last year,” Pro Teck CEO Tom O’Grady said in a statement.

Why the strong numbers? The firm chalked it up in part to historically low interest rates that keep the home price market favorable.

The Federal Reserve continue to allow federal interest rates to hover between .25 percent and .50 percent, with muted expectations for any further hikes since December, according to the Huffington Post [2].