Real estate values down despite turning economy

It has been said before that the economists are very optimistic about the recession’s end and the U.S. employment rate also seems to be improving. However, homeowners in many metro regions continue to be the victims of recession’s worst sting.
Recession hit the Nevada and Florida real estate market the most back in 2007. The problem in the real estate industry still persists in these two areas. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, home prices dropped 8.3 percent on average between February 2009 to February 2010 in Las Vegas, Miami and Tampa.
Home prices seem to be improving in California, the state which was also greatly affected by housing bust. The home prices rose by 8.3 percent on average between February 2009 to February 2010 in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. However, despite the gains, California is no better than Nevada and Florida when it comes to comparison of the current prices with relative peaks. Many homeowners are almost on the brink of foreclosure as home equity is continuously falling.
Many cities in the troubled states of California, Florida and Nevada have the lowest home equity to home value ratios so far this year. The bottom five metro areas with average home equity to home value ratio of 0.5% and 3% are Las Vegas and the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California.