By Diana Olick, CNBC Correspondent NEW YORK ( CNBC) - Are we better off today than we were four years ago? That is the constant question on the eve of yet another tight presidential race. From the perspective of home prices, the answer is, as always, it depends on where you live. Some cities are faring far better than others, and some believe that home prices are not entirely finished correcting. According to the widely watched S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices, home values in the nation's ten largest cities were down 2.4% from January 2009 through August 2012 seasonally adjusted. For the top twenty cities, they are down 3.7% seasonally adjusted. These two composites, however, are still both off nearly 30% from the peaks in the summer of 2006. Remember, also, that we saw a bump in home prices in 2010 from the Obama administration's home buyer tax credit. Home prices on the 20-city composite were up 1.5% in August 2010, not seasonally adjusted, from January 2009, but then of course they dropped again, and we are still, today, below that level of the tax credit surge.
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"Consumers' average home price change expectation is 1.5%, consistent with recent periods and marking nearly a full year in which home price expectations have been positive," according to Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey, released in early October. "Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed expect home prices to go up in the next year, the highest level since the survey's inception in June 2010." Confidence is up and national home price statistics are up, but 10.8 million, or 22.3% of all homeowners with a mortgage, owe more on that mortgage than their home is currently worth, according to CoreLogic. An additional 2.3 million borrowers have less than five percent equity in their homes, making it very difficult to move up or even out. Still, all real estate is local, so take a look to see where you might be:
--Written by Diana Olick at CNBC
| Miami: | -5.6% |
| Los Angeles: | +3.9% |
| Washington, DC: | +12.8% |
| San Diego: | +6.5% |
| Tampa: | -9.6% |
| Las Vegas: | -23.6% |
| Phoenix: | +1.8% |
| San Francisco: | +14.4% |
| New York: | -8.1% |
| Seattle: | -8.2% |
| Portland, OR: | -8.5% |
| Boston: | +5.0% |
| Minneapolis: | +3.5% |
| Chicago: | -10.2% |
| Denver: | +9.1% |
| Atlanta: | -12.5% |
| Charlotte: | -3.7% |
| Detroit: | +2.2% |
| Dallas: | +7.8% |
| Cleveland: | +0.1% |
| 10-City Composite: | +0.4% |
| 20-City Composite: | -0.3% |