Detroit, San Jose home prices up most since recession

Home renovation and home-flipping TV shows continue to be all the rage and a viewers’ ultimate fantasy might be: what if I had optimally timed the real estate market to purchase investment property?

Using figures from ATTOM Data Solutions, Bloomberg News found this "shoulda, coulda, woulda" proposition produced the biggest appreciation in two locales at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum.

Well-timed purchases in down-and-out Detroit and affluent San Jose, California would have yielded a return of more than 190 percent, albeit from very different starting points.

At the post-recession bottom in early to mid-2009 the average home in the Detroit area could have been grabbed for only $47,000, while in San Jose such a home would have cost around $395,000.

Not quite a decade later Detroit area home prices are averaging $137,900, while San Jose weighs in at a whopping $1,150,000. How’s that for tripling your money?