Houston among the nation's strongest housing markets

While many areas across the country have seen prices fall this year, a new report says that Houston real estate market will continue to be one of the strongest nationwide.

According to Veros Real Estate Solutions, the Houston-Sugarland-Baytown area has seen median single-family home prices increase by 2.4 percent over the past 12 months, the sixth-highest price appreciation of any major city in the country. The report also said that prices have remained high across much of the southern part of the country.

The weakest market in the country was found in Reno, Nevada, where prices have fallen 7.2 percent. But even there, analysts saw reasons for optimism.

"It is noteworthy that depreciating forecasts remain much better than those from a year ago with nothing worse than 7 percent depreciation," says Eric Fox, Veros' vice president of statistical and economic modeling. "A year ago, we were seeing some markets with depreciation rates in the double-digit range."

Data from the Houston Association of Realtors has also shown local price stability. The group's most recent monthly report found that the median home price in November was higher than any other November in history.