To say homeownership is a consistent barometer of personal wealth is an overstatement.
In reality, the past several years have been hard on homeowners in certain states, with prices dropping and values ascending at a slower pace — at least until last year's recovery kicked in.
But kicking homeownership while it's down, may be a bad move. Afterall, a new interactive graphic from Estate of Mind shows that since 1975 each state on average has witnessed positive home price appreciation.
However, that positive picture quickly goes askew when looking at appreciation over the past 5 years. During that time, only 11 states reported positive price growth on average.
Focusing on individual states, home price appreciation in Texas has averaged 3.85% growth since 1975. In the last 10 years, Texas picked up additional speed reporting 25.92% home price appreciation over the time period and recorded 5.26% price growth over the last 5 years.
Meanwhile, since 1975, California has recorded average home price appreciation of 6.62% despite the fact it experienced depreciation in the range of -2.79% over the past five years.
Interestingly enough, many states hit the hardest by the housing crisis in 2008 reported some of the highest appreciation rates in the past few years as they regained lost ground.
Click here to see the map.
