REAL GOOD: Columbia bucks national trend, ranks third in real estate gains

COLUMBIA, 3/12/11  (Beat Byte) --  Although most real estate markets nationwide continued to register home price declines, Columbia, Missouri joined 21 other mostly mid-sized cities with reasonable price appreciation:  5.07% over the past year, landing our town in Realtor.com's top three markets on the upswing. 

 

Five other cities showing annual real estate price gains were Fort Lauderdale, FL; (18.38 percent); Fort Collins-Loveland, CO (5.57 percent); Fort Wayne, IN (4.77 percent); Savannah, GA (4.18 percent); and Tyler, TX (3.94 percent).

 

The information is a first for Realtor.com, which aggregates listing information from some 933 multiple listing (MLS) services.  The online real estate database has never before released key metrics on search, inventory, prices and volume. 

 

The report also showed that the number of searches for homes by buyers on Realtor.com -- an indicator of future demand -- rose 10 percent over a year ago.

 

The news wasn't all good, however.  Record numbers of distress sales from foreclosures came on to the market in 2010. 

 

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