Property values in January are 5.7 percent higher than they were a year ago, but they still have a long way to go to regain the equity that has been lost in the past six years.

Although home prices have improved significantly in the last 12 months, a six-year price comparison shows that current prices remain well below their near-peak levels. On average, today’s home prices are about 27.5% below January 2007. In hard-hit markets such as Las Vegas, Orlando, Miami, and Riverside, Calif., home prices are only half of what they were six years ago, according to the latest FNC Residential Price Index® (RPI)

Four markets that FNC tracks, Denver, San Antonio, Houston and Columbus, have regained all value lost in the past six years and now are registering gains higher than they did at the peak of the housing boom. However, values in Miami, Orlando, Riverside and Las Vegas are more than 50 percent below the levels of 2007.

FNC also reported that the recovery of underlying property values is driving sale prices closer to list prices, a sign that markets are transitioning from buyer’s to seller’s markets . The average list-to-sale price ratio increased to 93.5 in January, compared to 90.3 during the same period a year ago; in other words, the average asking price discount dropped to 6.5% from 9.7%. Foreclosures, as a percentage of total home sales, were 20.2% in January, down from 26.9% a year ago.