Hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July celebrations.  Here are some bullets from the Harvard University report regarding home values that I thought were interesting.  Tomorrow, I'll summarize my take-away from this well-done report. 

• The value of the national housing market has been re-set back to 2003 levels according to data from First American CoreLogic.  In contrast Downtown Boston has seen the Median Price of a condominium home increase 29% since 2003 from $375,000 to $485,000 with the Average Price increasing 48% from $478,000 to  $709,008.

• Areas with job creation will see housing prices stabilize and values increase at a quicker pace than areas with higher unemployment.

• Nationally homes at the high end of the market have held value better than homes at the low end.

• Nationally real home equity fell from its peak of 14.9 Trillion in Q1 2006 to 6.3 Trillion year end 2010, would be single family homeowners are waiting for prices to firm.

• Once consumers perceive that a floor has formed under home prices, their reentry into the market could quickly burn through the lean inventory of unsold new homes and slim down the supply of existing homes on the market.