SEATTLE, March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Home values nationwide rose for the 16^th straight month in February to a Zillow® Home Value Index[i] of $158,100, and all 30 of the largest metro areas covered by Zillow registered both monthly and annual appreciation as the housing market recovery became more widespread in advance of the traditional spring home shopping season, according to the February Zillow Real Estate Market Reports[ii].

U.S. home values rose 0.1 percent in February compared with January and were up 5.8 percent year-over-year. The 5.8 percent annual gain is the second-largest since August 2006, exceeded only by January's 6 percent year-over-year jump. The last time national home values were at this level was in June 2004.

For the 12-month period from February 2013 through February 2014, U.S. home values are expected to rise 3.2 percent to approximately $163,100, according to the Zillow Home Value Forecast[iii]. This rate is well below the 5.6 percent annual rate of appreciation recorded in 2012, and is in line with Zillow's expectations that home value appreciation will slow to closer to historic norms of between 3 percent and 5 percent in coming years.

"The housing market recovery has continued to gain momentum over the past several months and looks firmly entrenched as we enter the 2013 spring home shopping season," said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries. "We expect that rising home values will continue to help cure many of the ills still facing the housing market, including high levels of negative equity. Rising home values will free many more homeowners from negative equity, allowing some of them to list their homes for sale which, in turn, will ease supply constraints. Burgeoning new construction will also help bring more supply into the marketplace. As more supply comes on line, home value appreciation rates will moderate and stabilize, marking the final transition from a recovering market to a healthy and sustainable market."

Of the 30 largest metro areas covered by Zillow, markets where home values increased the most over February 2012 included Phoenix (+22.9 percent), San Francisco (+18.6 percent), Las Vegas (+18.1 percent), San Jose (+17.1 percent) and Sacramento, Calif. (+15.3 percent). Only 73 of the 352 total metro markets covered by Zillow experienced year-over-year home value declines in February.

National rents rose slightly in February compared with January, up 0.1 percent to a Zillow Rent Index[iv] of $1,282. Year-over-year, national rents were up 4.5 percent in February.

The number of completed home foreclosures in February fell to 5.25 homes foreclosed out of every 10,000 homes nationwide, down 0.8 homes from January and 2.5 homes from February 2012. Foreclosure resales represented 13.71 percent of homes sold in February, up 1.2 percentage points from January but down 3.5 percentage points from February 2012.

About Zillow:

Zillow, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z) operates the largest home-related marketplaces on mobile and the Web, with a complementary portfolio of brands and products that help people find vital information about homes, and connect with the best local professionals. In addition, Zillow operates an industry-leading economics and analytics bureau led by Zillow's Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries. Dr. Humphries and his team of economists and data analysts produce extensive housing data and research covering more than 350 markets at Zillow Real Estate Research. Zillow also sponsors the quarterly Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey, which asks more than 100 leading economists, real estate experts and investment and market strategists to predict the path of the Zillow Home Value Index over the next five years. The Zillow, Inc. portfolio includes Zillow.com®, Zillow Mobile, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow Rentals, Zillow Digs™, Postlets®, Diverse Solutions®, Buyfolio™, Mortech™ and HotPads™. The company is headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow.com, Zillow, Zestimate, Postlets and Diverse Solutions are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. Buyfolio, Mortech, HotPads and Digs are trademarks of Zillow, Inc.

[i] The Zillow Home Value Index is the median Zestimate® valuation for a given geographic area on a given day and includes the value of all single-family residences, condominiums and cooperatives, regardless of whether they sold within a given period. It is expressed in dollars, and seasonally adjusted.

[ii] The Zillow Real Estate Market Reports are a monthly overview of the national and local real estate markets. The reports are compiled by Zillow Real Estate Research. For more information, visit www.zillow.com/research. The data in Zillow's Real Estate Market Reports is aggregated from public sources by a number of data providers for 923 metropolitan and micropolitan areas dating back to 1996. Mortgage and home loan data is typically recorded in each county and publicly available through a county recorder's office. All current monthly data at the national, state, metro, city, ZIP code and neighborhood level can be accessed at www.zillow.com/local-info/

[iii] The Zillow Home Value Forecast uses data from past home value trends and current market conditions, including leading indicators like home sales, months of housing inventory supply and unemployment, to predict home values over the next 12 months for the nation and for more than 250 markets across the country.

[iv] The Zillow Rent Index is the median Rent Zestimate (estimated monthly rental price) for a given geographic area on a given day, and includes the value of all single-family residences, condominiums, cooperatives and apartments in Zillow's database, regardless of whether they are currently listed for rent. It is expressed in dollars.

SOURCE Zillow, Inc.