Zillow: Home values are on the mend

U.S. home prices rose in the second quarter on an annual basis for the first time in close to five years, online real estate firm Zillow said Tuesday. The value of U.S. homes rose 0.2 percent, increasing for the first time on a 12-month basis since 2007, the firm said. In addition, the firm based in Seattle said, the Zillow Home Value Forecast "shows that 67 of the 156 markets it [the index] covers will experience an increase in home values over the next 12 months." The firm predicted home values will rise 1.1 percent nationally in the next 12 months. The firm announced that the housing market had "turned a corner," with the national average price of a home rising to $149,300. In the latest survey, 53 of the 167 markets monitored posted annual increases. The leader was Phoenix, where home values have risen 9.9 percent. In Miami, prices are up 6.1 percent over the 12-month period. "After four months with rising home values and increasingly positive forecast data, it seems clear that the country has hit a bottom in home values," Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said in a statement. "The housing recovery is holding together despite lower-than-expected job growth, indicating that it has some organic strength of its own."