California rebound boosts 20-city home price index
New York Times
By Alan Zibel and Alex Veiga
... A surprisingly strong rebound in California's real estate market helped lift a key home price index for the eighth month in a row. That's good news for people who plan to sell their homes this spring. Prices are now up almost 4 percent from the bottom in May 2009, but still almost 30 percent below the May 2006 peak...
... In February, bank-owned properties made up 44 percent of all resales in the state, according to MDA DataQuick. In Southern California, they accounted for more than half of resales. With such high demand, supply is dwindling, driving prices higher.
Meanwhile, the state's unemployment rate has flat-lined of late, and that's made buyers more comfortable about purchasing a home than they were just six months ago, said Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California....