Denver is 'most improved' U.S. housing market

Denver is the "most improved U.S. housing market," according to a new report from Bloomberg Businessweek.

"In Denver, the economy and employment slowed just as other areas did during the recession, but things appear to be moving in the right direction this year," the report says.

It says Denver-Aurora-Broomfield metro-area home prices increased 5.8 percent in the first quarter from the same period of 2009 as sales grew and distressed sales fell, based on data from CoreLogic of Santa Ana, Calif. And it cites research by Development Research Partners of Littleton forecasting a 5 percent boost in both home sales and prices in the Denver-area this year.

It also notes signs of the area's reviving economy, including prospects of rising employment.

"An influx of renewable energy companies and the relocation of kidney care giant DaVita's headquarters to Denver from California in 2009 are expected to create jobs," Businessweek's Venessa Wong wrote. "In fact, about one in 25 employers in the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area plans to add jobs in the second quarter, according to the most recent Manpower Employment Outlook Survey."

"We never went up as fast in terms of value, and we never came down as fast," the report quotes Jim Nussbaum, a broker associate for Kentwood Real Estate in Greenwood Village, as saying. "Last year, [buyers] were like deer in headlights-they were afraid to move. When the stock market improved, they started to feel better."

The report lists 20 other improved U.S. housing markets. "It's not just Denver. Signs of life have emerged in areas around the country-signs that the worst may have passed," the report says.

After Denver, the most-improved markets in the report are:

• 2. Boston.
• 3. St. Louis.
• 4. Pittsburgh.
• 5. San Jose, Calif.
• 6. San Francisco.
• 7. Washington.
• 8. Cincinnati.
• 9. Minneapolis-St. Paul.
• 10. Milwaukee.