Fastest Appreciating Home Prices in this City in California

[Tom Wilson]

Wait for it...STOCKTON, and its neighbor Lodi. The Mercury News names Stockton as former "most miserable city", now benefiting from the ultra-tight Bay Area housing demand.

Of the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, these saw the biggest increases in home prices over the past five years:

1. Stockton/Lodi — 91.94 percent
2. Oakland/Hayward/Berkeley — 85.71 percent
3. Las Vegas/Henderson/Paradise — 85.21 percent
4. San Francisco/Redwood City/South San Francisco — 77.07 percent
5. Seattle/Bellevue/Everett — 74.66 percent
6. Sacramento/Roseville/Arden/Arcade — 74.03 percent
7. North Port/Sarasota/Bradenton, Florida — 72.5 percent
8. Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario — 70.82 percent
9. Cape Coral/Fort Myers, Florida — 70.1 percent
10. West Palm Beach/Boca Raton/Delray Beach, Florida — 69.19 percent

Some markets appreciate because of good reasons like job growth and supply shortages. Other markets bubble for less fundamentally sound reasons such as the overly subsidized loans in the first part of the pre-crash decade along with investor speculation and the greater fool theory that works until it doesn't.

Remember that the market is thousands of submarkets and they don't all move together. I believe that in many fundamentally good markets, we still have more room for growth; however, remember that all expansions end, to quote Dr. Doug Duncan, the Chief Economist of Fannie Mae.

It may be time in some markets to take some money off the table. One of the wealthiest families in the world, Lafite Rothschild, once said that one of the reasons for their great wealth was because of "selling too soon". Better take a sure profit than keep kicking the betting can down the road too far.

                                                   Read More