The housing crisis has been the worse in five states — Nevada, California, Florida, Michigan and Arizona. A recovery has begun in states that have almost nothing in common geographically or demographically. In other words, the states where home prices have started to rise has not created a national pattern that makes sense.

New data from CoreLogic shows that home price improvements of more than 2% in October, compared to the same month last year, happened in West Virginia, South Dakota, New York, the District of Columbia, Kansas, Alaska and Mississippi.

Three of the states — Alaska, South Dakota and West Virginia — are sparsely populated. They have little else in common. Alaska’s personal income is among the highest in states. Mississippi and West Virgina have among the lowest.

Alaska and South Dakota have homogenous populations. The District of Columbia and New York have large “minority” populations. The same is true of Mississippi.

Whatever recovery patterns there may be, they have not started to help the states in which home prices have fallen the most. CoreLogic data shows that in October, among the 10 markets with the largest price drops were Arizona, California and Nevada.

Home prices may have started to recover across a patchwork of states that are not related in any way, at least on the surface. At the same time, the more troubled markets continue to be troubled.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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