For the first time since 2007, home values saw a year-over-year gain in the second quarter of 2012, according to the ""Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI)"":http://www.zillow.com/local-info/.
[IMAGE]The index showed homes increased in value by 0.2 percent to $149,300 from last year's second quarter. Additionally, values increased for the fourth month in a row.
""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,"" said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries. ""The housing recovery is holding together despite lower-than-expected job growth, indicating that it has some organic strength of its own.
Adding to the gain in values, foreclosures decreased again in June, with 5.8 out of every 10,000 homes counted as a foreclosure.
Foreclosures have been on the decline since January, when 7.9 out of every 10,000 homes were foreclosed on.
[COLUMN_BREAK]According to Zillow, this downward trend will not last, with foreclosure starts seeing an increase following the $25 billion national mortgage settlement.
Foreclosure re-sales have also slowed down, showing a decline since February when foreclosure re-sales accounted for 18.8 percent of all sales compared to 15.6 percent in June.
""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,"" said Humphries.
Out of 167 metros covered by Zillow, 53 posted increases from the second quarter of 2011 to the same quarter this year. Values in Phoenix rose by 12.1 percent, the highest among other metros during the same time period.
According to the Zillow Home Value Forecast, national home values are projected to rise by 1.1 percent into the second quarter of 2013.
""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,"" said Humphries.
Among the 156 markets covered by Zillow, 67 are expected to show gains in the same quarter in 2013. Phoenix is projected to see values rise the most at 9.9 percent. Other metros expected to see significant increases are Miami metro (+6.1 percent), Riverside, California (5.6 percent), and Portland, Oregon (+4.3 percent).