This report presents data on property value at the national level and for metropolitan statistical areas (metro areas) based on the 2008 and 2009 American Community Surveys (ACS).¹ The value of property is an important component in measuring neighborhood quality, housing affordability, and wealth. These data provide socioeconomic information not captured by household income and comparative information about metro housing markets.

The change in property values provides insight into the many countervailing pressures evident in metro housing markets throughout the nation. Record number of foreclosures, high levels of unemployment, and borrowers owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth continued to depress housing markets while federal initiatives such as the first-time homebuyer tax credit and low mortgage interest rates attempted to provide some much needed stability.² The maps and table that accompany this report identify median property values in 2009 and percentage changes of property values between 2008 and 2009 for metro areas.

In the ACS, value is the owner’s estimate of how much the property (house and lot, mobile home and lot, or condominium unit) would sell for if it were for sale. Median value means that one-half of all homes were worth more and one-half were worth less. Median value estimates for 2008 were inflation-adjusted to 2009 dollars.³

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¹ For more information on metro areas, please see <www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/omb/bulletins/fy2009/09-01.pdf>.
² For a more in-depth discussion of this and related issues see Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, State of the Nation’s Housing 2010, <www.jchs.harvard.edu/son/index.htm>.
³ For more information on property value, please see <www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/technical-documentation.html>.