“Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations while noting these grades are best seen as a mix of artful interpretation and data.
Buzz: The Inland Empire is home to California’s wildest home-price swings.
Source: My trusty spreadsheet tallied annual changes in home values in seven big California markets, as calculated by Federal Housing Finance Agency indexes dating to 1978. Rankings tracked four factors: the gap between best and worst years; the share of down years; a geeky measure of price-swing variations called “standard deviation;” and the 44-year average price gain. The final grade was an average ranking of these four yardsticks.
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As California