New York Fed Unveils Tool to Track Recovery in Tri-State Area

The ""Federal Reserve Bank of New York"":http://www.newyorkfed.org/index.html announced the launch of a new interactive tool designed to provide data on the state of the housing recovery in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

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The Housing Market Recovery Web page provides a series of interactive visuals to display where home prices have recovered and to what extent. The page also highlights the recovery's effect on home equity and affordability.

For example, one map can be used to compare county-level median home prices in 2012 with those of previous years. Another chart compares home price indices for select parts of the region relative to the national price peak in 2006.

Current data on the site show significant variation across regional counties in the tri-state area. For example, median home prices have rebounded back to peak levels in 35 percent of counties, most of which are located in upstate New York. As of September, 82 percent of counties in the region have seen a rise in prices during the year, suggesting that local markets may have hit bottom.

The tool is ""available at the New York Fed's website"":http://www.newyorkfed.org/regional/hpi-recovery/index.html#what-has-been-the-effect-of-home-prices-on-affordability. It will be updated with more information as the data becomes available.