No. 2: Boston-Quincy, Mass.

No. 2: Boston-Quincy, Mass.

Q1 Home price index: 6 percent
Q1 Foreclosure rate (YOY change): 2.1 percent (up 32.8 percent)
Q1 90+ day delinquency rate (YOY change): 7.2 percent (up 43 percent)
April 2010 unemployment rate: 7.9 percent

In the first quarter, the Boston area had the second-largest home price increase (6 percent) among the 50 metros surveyed, according to CoreLogic data. A report by the Concord Group, a real estate consultancy, projects recovery (or sustainable home sales and price appreciation) in the metro Boston housing market in late 2011, ahead of other areas. Boston, supported by a strong education sector, was hit earlier and less severely by the housing crisis than other places, and the unemployment rate here has stayed below the national average.