It ’ s true that in Silicon Valley and San Francisco , we ’ ve seen some of the largest increases in home prices in the last year alone , boosted by a soaring tech economy and an overall lack of inventory .
 This is great news for homeowners and the local economies that inevitably benefit from a strong housing market . But what many watch with caution is the long-term impact on housing affordability – especially for first-time home buyers and other classes of workers that are at risk for being priced out .

The interesting thing about these markets is that many of them are concentrated in the hardest hit areas from the housing downturn . For instance , Los Angeles , Riverside and Sacramento were all hit hard by the market decline , but have since seen sharp improvements in the last four years .
 On the other end of the spectrum — in a blog post about the report — NAR says a number of markets that were in the bottom 10 for equity appreciation in 2006 did not see the same strong appreciation . These included Reno , Las Vegas and several Florida markets .
 This is sort of telling about some of the ultimate truths about real estate – location and

Top 10 Markets by Equity Appreciation Since 4th Quarter of 2010

$ 250,000 $ 200,000 $ 150,000 $ 100,000 $ 50,000

$ 0

San Jose

San Francisco Anaheim

Los Angeles San Diego

Boulder Honolulu

Riverside

Cape Coral-

Sacramento jobs are , and always will be , inextricably tied to the long-term health of local markets .
 It will be interesting to see where these numbers lie at this time next year . Marta is the recipient of top honors at the Intero Real Estate Services Annual Achievement Awards : Top Producing Agent for 2013 Gilroy Intero Office — putting her in the top 5 % of all Intero Real Estate Services nationwide .

November 2013 thru January 2014 February 2014 thru April 2014

S U M M E R 2 0 1 4 G I L R O Y T O D A Y 7