RealEstateEconomyWatch.com

Pro Teck Valuation Services’ February HomeValueForecast.com shows the majority of U.S. Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) demonstrating more positive than negative market trends despite weak or soft status for top U.S. CSBAs.

This month’s analysis includes an enhanced scoring system ranking housing market conditions in several areas from “hot” to “distressed.” February’s HomeValueForecast.com explores significant differences in the San Francisco, CA real estate market conditions and corresponding home price performance within individual ZIP codes.

“The vast majority of housing markets are improving as of the first quarter of 2012. Fortunately, we are seeing an improving jobs picture, low interest rates and a slowing of distress sales on the market as a percentage of all sales,” said Tom O’Grady, president and CEO of Pro Teck Valuation Services. “Many markets remain weak but even within weak markets there are bright spots such as low inventories within lower priced segments.”

As part of its monthly update, HomeValueForecast.com developed a CBSA level real estate market ranking system. The rankings are run for the single family home markets in the top 200 CBSAs on a monthly basis to highlight the best and worst performing metros with regard to a number of leading real estate market based indicators including average active market time, average listing price, number of foreclosure sales, number of active listings, number of new listings, average sold price, and number of sales. HomeValueForecast.com also includes the ratio of Foreclosure Sales to Total Regular and REO Sales as an indicator to measure distressed sales activity.

HomeValueForecast.com shows the distribution for the top 200 CBSAs of the net number of positive indicators from the rankings above. In the February analysis, the majority of CBSAs are showing more positive than negative internal market trends. The indicators are forward-looking so they are forecasting improving conditions in a high percentage of important CBSAs.

• February’s top CBSAs include a number of Florida communities:

Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin

Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach

Port St. Lucie

West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach

• Other top CBSA’s included:

Provo-Orem, UT

Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI

Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA

Canton-Massillon, OH; Dayton, OH

Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO

• The bottom CBSAs for February were:

Eugene-Springfield, OR

Huntsville, AL

Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX

New Haven-Milford, CT

Norwich-New London, CT

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

Jacksonville, NC

Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL

Spokane, WA

Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT

HomeValueForecast.com ranks relative housing market conditions from hot to distressed. This overall market condition scale uses a variety of scoring indicators including price trends, inventory trends, foreclosure trends, and more to provide a score that reflects both current conditions and trends in conditions.