The housing market has been making small strides towards recovery, and with it an interesting split has occurred between suburban and urban growth. According to Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia, cities are outpacing the suburbs in price gains, but the suburbs are leading the way in population growth.According to Kolko, citing Trulia's Price and Rent Monitor report, asking prices for homes in urban settings with high-density populations are continuing to increase. After seasonally adjusting calculations, Trulia found that national month-to-month asking prices in urban markets ticked up 1.2 percent in March. On a quarterly basis, prices jumped 2.0 percent in March, marking the third straight month of month-over-month gains.Asking prices are up 10 percent from last year, rising in 97 of the 100 largest metros. Only three metro areas demonstrated a fall in asking prices year-over-year-Albany, New York; and Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut.Curiously, it's the suburbs where population is getting the largest boost. Kolko says, "locations with stronger demand, should have both higher price growth and more population growth." Since the new home construction bubble burst in 2009, there has been a higher demand for urban residency, which has in turn hurt suburban construction growth."Suburbs can have faster household growth but smaller price gains because it's easier to build new housing in suburbs than in dense urban neighborhoods," Kolko said. "New construction accommodates population growth while taking pressure off rising prices."It merely appears that cities are taking the lead in the housing recovery, he said, because home prices in densely populated high-rise areas in cities, such as New York and Chicago, have gone up at a faster pace than those in other urban areas.
