From worst to first

Some of the metro areas that suffered the most in the real estate collapse saw some impressive year-over-year house-price gains in July.

Jed Kolko, the chief economist at online real estate listing firm Trulia, recently posted a chart online showing the metro areas of the country with the biggest annual increases in asking prices for existing homes.

Number two in the nation: Cape Coral-Fort Myers, with a 15.9% increase in asking prices for the year ending in July. The Lee County area ranked in second place in the nation behind Phoenix, which posted a 21.6% jump in the same period.

But temper your hopes for a top 10 repeat.

Kolko says none of the Florida metro areas with the biggest year-over-year gains made the top 10 list for the recent quarter.

“That means their year-over-year gains happened mostly before this quarter, and in the coming months they'll be dropping off the list of metros with the largest year-over-year asking price increases,” Kolko warns. “Comparing year-over-year gains with the most recent quarter-over-quarter gains, it's clear that the housing price recovery has shifted from Florida to Arizona, California and Nevada.”