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Feature also on the decline and home sales seeing double-digit yearly gains, it seems uphill from here. According to CoreLogic senior economist Sam Khater, Atlanta's growth seems almost out of place, considering the state of many nearby metros. "Atlanta's typical of many Southwestern markets. It sort of almost belongs with the other Southwestern markets in terms of how overbuilt it got and in terms of how it's recovered," Khater said. He also notes the city is a relative hotbed of investor activity—a factor driving growth in many other hard-hit markets as well. "There's been a very strong turnaround in Atlanta from a price basis," he said. "Home prices don't shift that quickly on fundamentals alone." "Chicago has been slower to recover than some other markets. The major [reason] is the foreclosure law—it's a judicial state, so it's taking a lot longer for these loans to process and go through the system." — Sam Khater, CoreLogic to last year, LePage noted that move-up activity seems to be picking up steam. According to DataQuick, the number of homes sold for more than $500,000 fell almost 19 percent year-overyear in the Bay Area, while the number of homes sold for more than that rose more than a quarter. The median price in San Francisco was $818,000 in March, a yearly increase of 25.8 percent. "We're just seeing a lot more activity in the middle and higherend markets thanks to ultra-low mortgage rates and more people being happy with what their home will fetch," LePage said. ∂ San Francisco, California W hen talking about the health of the San Francisco Bay Area, it may first be important to specify where. "The Bay Area is interesting, because part of the Bay Area—the coastal portion—held up better than most parts of the country, but the inland portions of the Bay Area were hit almost as hard as interior California," explained Andrew LePage from DataQuick News. "So you run the whole spectrum in terms of foreclosures and price declines, to relatively little in Silicon Valley and San Francisco proper to really bad in the eastern parts of the San Francisco Bay Area." While sales in Frisco were depressed in March compared 32 | The M Report The major [reason] is the foreclosure law—it's a judicial state, so it's taking a lot longer for these loans to process and go through the system," CoreLogic's Khater said. "The other major factor in Chicago is the Midwest economy, as we all know, has struggled in the recession. Many markets in the Midwest never really recovered from the last recession." Still, however, February's price index was an improvement over last year—which saw a decline of 7.3 percent—and sales were up an impressive 25.4 percent, ranking the Windy City among the top markets in terms of yearly sales gains. Good, yes, but it's important to remember where the market is coming from. "Keep in mind, both Chicago and Atlanta are coming off of low bottoms. It doesn't take much to get a pop of 20 percent year-overyear on sales," Khater said. ∂ Chicago, Illinois C hicago has been slow on the uptake when it comes to the housing recovery. Of the 25 largest core-based statistical areas tracked by CoreLogic, it saw the lowest price growth in February 2013 (coming in a mere 0.3 percent above its year-ago level), and its price index remains 37 percent below its peak. "Chicago has been slower to recover than some other markets. ∂ New York, New York O n the recovery side, the Big Apple is rather small-time. New York's home price index (as measured by CoreLogic) was up 9.7 percent year-over-year in February, coming in slightly below the 10.1 percent median of all 25 of the largest metros surveyed. According to Khater, the area actually hit peak delinquency at the start of 2013, registering a flat 9 percent delinquency rate, and because it's located in a judicial foreclosure state, it's likely going to take some time for prices to make any real improvements. "You can tell from the peaks that New York and Chicago are lagging in terms of recovery," Khater said. On the plus side, New York's price index was only down 10 percent from its peak in February, meaning there's not as much ground to make up as there is in other suffering markets. ∂ Detroit, Michigan D etroit presents a mixed picture in that its recessionary challenges have had less to do with housing and more to do with its broader economic situation. An examination of the last 13 years shows home prices ran up only about 28.4 percent from 2000 through mid-2005 or so—a very mild increase compared to the triple-digit growth observed in most cities during the same period. According to Yanling Mayer, senior research economist at FNC, Inc., the Motor City's crash largely stemmed from weakness in its automotive industry. "The timing of that is likely due to the timing of the city's auto industry being in trouble," Mayer explained. "The subprime crisis definitely played a role, but I think there's a lot more to be