Boulder follows Pueblo among Colorado and metros nationwide for home-price appreciation

It’s been a while since Colorado didn't make an appearance among the top 20 states for home-price appreciation on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Quarterly House Price Index. But it happened in the third quarter of 2010 despite most of the state's metros improving their ranking.

With a drop in home prices of 2.88 percent from the third quarter of 2009 and a 2.08 percent drop from the previous quarter, Colorado ranked 28th among 51 on the index. It came in at No. 14 in the second quarter with prices dropping 0.25 percent from the second quarter of 2009 and falling 0.98 percent from the previous quarter.

Although Colorado’s home prices as a whole didn’t perform as well on a national level, its cities’ prices held their own among the 299 metros surveyed. Boulder’s ranking jumped from 74th in the second quarter to 53rd in the third quarter and Denver-Aurora-Broomfield’s climbed an impressive 48 steps from 122nd in the second quarter to 74th in the third quarter.

But perhaps the most impressive improvement in home prices came from Pueblo, which jumped from the 242nd slot in the second quarter to the 47th rank in the third, making it the top-performing city in Colorado - even beating out Boulder, which has held that honor in more recent quarters.

Except for the top 11 states ranked, all states experienced declines in home prices for the year and most for the quarter. The District of Columbia ranked No. 1 aong metros with an appreciation rate of 5.29 percent for the year and 6.79 percent for the quarter.

Here’s a look at how Colorado and its cities ranked for home-price appreciation in the third quarter compared with the nation and the second quarter of 2010: