U.S. Housing Market Finally Returning to Normal

A new forecast predicts that home prices will increase by an average of 3.3 percent annually over the five years ending September 2017. The report released by Fiserv Case-Shiller reveals that 2012 was the first year since 1997 that the housing “market resembled something [close to] normal.”

From 1998 until the housing bubble

peaked in 2006, home prices grew by 5 percent or more a year. But when the bubble burst, home prices fell by 30.5 percent through the end of September 2012. Between September 2011 and September 2012, average U.S. home prices rose 3.6 percent.

Many of the metro areas hit hardest by the housing bust recorded the biggest price gains, including Detroit with close to a 16-percent gain, Phoenix (over 20 percent), and San Jose, Cali. (12.5 percent gain).

Read more at CNN.