The recession brought weakness to nearly all metro areas in the United States, but not in equal degrees. Some are now seeing prices rise. Yun pegs Washington, D.C., as America's strongest housing market, thanks in part to being "stimulus central," with lots of government contracts creating jobs.
Price indexes from the Federal Housing Finance Agency show that some hard-hit states are stabilizing faster than others. California home prices have fallen less during the past year (1.5 percent) than the national average (3.2 percent). By contrast, the biggest price drops in the past year have occurred in other "bust" states – Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia – along with Idaho, South Carolina, and Oregon.
