Real Estate Rebound Gaining Ground in Select Cities

Florida has been one of the hardest states hit from the real estate bust, yet it has contributed six cities that have going against the downward market trend.

"Take Fort Myers. The Sunshine State's retirement haven, where home prices tumbled 58.6% from their 2006 peak, had a 2.9% appreciation rate in the first quarter and a 3.7% rate during the second. Those numbers have been steadily inching back up since November of 2010, following the home price dip felt throughout the U.S. (including in many of the cities that grace this list) after the First-Time Home Buyer tax credits expired. In spite of that dip, homes in Fort Myers have appreciated 3.8% from June of 2010 to June of 2011."

In Bay City, "(Renee Harvey, a Saginaw, Mich.-based real estate broker with Keller Williams) chalks up the slight uptick to the local presence of corporate giants like Dow Chemical Company and the fact that lenders and Realtors in the area have been more effectively mitigating distressed properties: 'We are selling more traditional properties and much fewer distressed properties.'"

A slideshow showing the 25 rebounding metro areas is attached to the original article on the Forbes website.