According to a Veros Real Estate Solutions survey, a little under half of the metro areas in the country will experience some home appreciation in the coming year[1]. The enterprise risk management and collateral valuation service used “advanced analytics and micro-market data to achieve highly accurate results,” the company explained. The VeroFORECAST has been around for eight years and is known for consistent “strength and accuracy.”

If the forecast holds true, then the sun could finally start peeking out from behind the clouds for some major real estate markets in the country. Veros is predicting a 2.5-3.5 percent appreciation on home values over the next year (December 2010 through December 2011) in areas like Pittsburgh, PA, Fargo, ND and the Washington D.C. metro area. However, other areas of the country are going to head in the opposite direction, predicts the forecast, with Florida as a whole, Reno, NV and Boise, ID experiencing a continuation of their current trend of depreciation.

Interestingly, the “smaller metro markets with populations less than 250,000 make up the majority of the better appreciating markets,” said Veros vice president of statistical and economic modeling, Eric Fox. As a result, a “strengthening trend” is spreading through the Midwest and parts of the Southeast, while California remains consistent as a leader in national home gains. Even in areas of the country that are continuing to depreciate, Fox notes some improvement: “Depreciating forecasts remain much better than those from a year ago with nothing worse than seven percent depreciation,” he said. “A year ago, we were seeing some markets with depreciation rates in the double-digit range.”

[1]http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news22509/veros-finds-40-percent-metro-areas-nationwide-will-experience-home-price-appreciation