The distress of the San Diego real estate market seems to be easing, as most indicators are rallying despite some signs of continued fragility. According to a May 25, 2010 article from San Diego 6 News, “San Diego has logged 11 consecutive months of increasing home prices, while much of the nation’s housing market continues to decline. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for San Diego rose 1.5 percent from February to March and was up 10.8 percent year-over-year.” The piece went on to say that “Nationally, the S&P index of 20 major cities fell 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010, but was 2 percent higher from the same period last year. The index was down .5 percent from February to March. Prices in 13 of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the index declined from February to March.”

This same basic news – that the average price of a San Diego home for sale rallied once again in March – was mentioned in a May 25, 2010 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune. This piece found that “With 11 consecutive months of growth, San Diego County is leading the nation’s largest metro areas in home-price appreciation, the widely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed Tuesday. In March, the index of San Diego prices was up 10.8 percent from the previous year, the biggest increase since the heady days of mid-2005.” The piece by Roger Showley continued to say that “By contrast, prices in the 20 metro areas that comprise the index declined by 0.5 percent from February to March, the sixth straight decline. They were up 2.4 percent year over year.”

Foreclosure rates, one of the usual indicators of distress in the San Diego real estate market, eased considerably in the most recent tracking period. According to a May 24, 2010 article also in the Union-Tribune, “Mortgage defaults dipped in San Diego County last month to their lowest level since January, as distressed-property owners found alternatives to foreclosures, MDA DataQuick reported Monday. Other signs of distress seemed [to] be easing, as delinquencies stopped growing, banks acted on their foreclosure backlogs, more homes were listed for sale and there were more building permits.”

The Dallas real estate market seems to be recovering slowly, although there are still a number of challenges facing the Dallas-Fort Worth region. According to a  November 29, 2009 article from the Denton Record-Chronicle, home foreclosures have decreased in the most recent year. the piece, composed by Candace Calisle, noted that “Fewer homes were posted for foreclosure this year in Denton County compared with last year, according to a recent study conducted by Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. Denton and Dallas counties were the only two in the 19-county study that showed decreased net foreclosure postings, said George Roddy Sr., president of the Addison-based listing service. ‘We got a pretty good indicator, which is, Denton is faring better than most of the other counties in the metro area,’ Roddy said.”

A relatively steady trend was reported for Dallas home sales and prices, according to a November 25, 2009 article in the Dallas Morning News. According to the piece, written by Steve Brown, “Dallas-Fort Worth home prices held almost steady in the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index – down 1.2 percent from a year ago. It was one of the smallest annual declines in more than a year in the closely watched index of home prices around the country. September prices were down 0.7 percent from August, ending a six-month string of month-over-month gains…Nationwide, prices fell 9.4 percent in September from a year earlier in the 20 cities Case-Shiller tracks. The numbers continue to show gains from earlier in the year, analysts said. North Texas home prices are about 7 percent higher in the Case-Shiller index than they were at the bottom of the market in February.”

A November 24, 2009 article in the Dallas Business Journal took a slightly different angle on real estate in Dallas. According to the piece, “Home prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are down 1.2 percent in the third quarter, but North Texas homeowners are faring much better than those in other U.S.-based cities, according to the latest Standard & Poor’s S & P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index report. Only Denver has had a price decline as slight as the drop experienced in Dallas. Most other American cities experienced declines of 3.3 percent or more during the third quarter, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report.”