Prices for houses have climbed in three-quarters of U.S. cities and values nationally jumped the most since 2006 as real-estate markets stabilized.
The median price increased in the second quarter from a year earlier in 110 of 147 metropolitan areas that were measured, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. In the first quarter, 74 areas had gains.
In the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area — Summit and Portage counties — the median price rose 16.5 percent to $116,700.
U.S. housing prices are beginning to lift off the bottom after the worst housing slump since the 1930s, as buyers compete for a tight supply of properties. At the end of June, 2.39 million homes (not including new construction) were available for sale, 24 percent fewer than a year earlier, the Realtors said.
“The turnaround in home prices feels pretty broad,” said Celia Chen, a housing economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pa. “There are still risks that home prices will dip a little more before they start appreciating with any consistency.”
One threat to home values is the so-called shadow inventory of delinquent properties that have yet to enter the market.
The national median single-family home price was $181,500 in the second quarter, up 7.3 percent from the same period last year, the strongest annual increase since 2006.