Hartford may want to thank Obamacare for its home price gains in the upcoming year. Home to some of the nation's biggest insurers, like Aetna and UnitedHealth Group, the new health care law has helped these firms expand and bring jobs to the area, according to Thomas Deller, who directs development for the city of Hartford.

All of the white-collar jobs have kept household incomes high -- at a median of more than $85,000 last year. That makes the area's median home price of $234,000 quite affordable for most residents.

CoreLogic forecasts a 12-month gain of 8.3% through September and it expects the recovery to have legs. It sees another price increase of 6.6%, for the 12 months after that.