According to a report issued last Tuesday by financial-data firm Fiserv, INC along with Moody's Analytics, Fiserv's analysis predicts a 25% appreciation of real estate in Tacoma by spring of 2013 and 10% in Seattle.

Fiserv's chief economist, David Stiff, points to Tacoma and Seattle's strong and diverse economies as the backbone of a strong recovery. Nationwide, Fiserv's predicts home prices will start to turn around in early 2012 and that home prices in the 384 metro areas will rise by 2.7% between the first quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 with gains in 365 of the 384 metro areas.

In this report, Stiff points to falling mortgage delinquency rates and declining foreclosures as a positives that will help outweigh a major negative which is the average American household's damaged confidence in the economy. Additionally, the Kennewick-Pasco-Richland metro area, Spokane metro area, and Olympia metro area are in the 10 markets projected to see the highest increases in home values between the first quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. Including Tacoma, that puts 4 out of the top 10 appreciation areas by spring 2012 in Washington (with Seattle close behind).

This isn't the first time Tacoma or Seattle has made headlines in regards to appreciation forecasts. Back in February CNNMoney predicted Tacoma real estate would appreciate 11.8% by September, 2012 and it was about this time last year that Fiserv and Moody's predicted the Seattle area would appreciate 25.5% by 2014.

More information on the Indexes can be found at the Fiserv Case-Shiller website at www.caseshiller.fiserv.com.

- Prospera Real Estate's Bellevue and Seattle real estate news, market trends, statistics, and blog