It has been a long and winding road for the real estate market throughout the US, and Atlanta is no exception. According to Zillow and their real estate data for the second quarter of 2014, metro Atlanta prices are strengthening on a slow and steady climb from the pits of the recession of 2008. While experts predict the recession will not truly be out of Atlanta’s hair until 2016, it is definitely progressing and showing change in the right direction.

But what about on a national scale? The climb is still very real for many markets, and home values are currently about 11.3 percent below their 2007 peak. U.S. home values climbed 6.3 percent year-over-year in the second quarter to of $174,200 — the slowest annual pace of appreciation recorded so far this year and a sign that the market is returning to more normal levels.

As we have seen steady price growth throughout 2014 thus far, it is likely only the prices will continue to rise, but at a slow rate. Each month we are seeing about a 2 percent rise in price, and the market is slowly inching back to a normalcy that it saw before the recession. Thinking of moving to Atlanta and buying a home? The time to act is now, as prices will continue to climb as the months pass us by.