"The housing market is on the mend, but the housing bottom will be a protracted one"
- Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries
U.S. home values recorded its biggest gain since 2006, a sign the nation's property market is recovering. According to the Zillow, a real estate information service, the average price of the house rose 1.3% to $153,800 in the third quarter of 2012, up from $151,800 in the previous three months. However, the pace of recovery was uneven across the nation, with a 5.9% increase in Phoenix, while Atlanta posted the biggest drop in values, falling 2.2% from the previous three months.
"The housing market is on the mend, but the housing bottom will be a protracted one," said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries. "We will see more muted appreciation in the near term before we get back to normal appreciation trends."
"We're likely to see home values fall back into the negative range in some markets due to the close of the traditional home-buying season."
The Standard & Poor's 500 plunged 1.44 per cent to 1,413.11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 1.82% per cent to 13,102.53. The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.88% per cent to 2,990.46.
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