Top Turnaround Housing Markets for 2012

As encouraging housing statistics coupled with testimony from bullish real estate experts points toward a possible market turnaround, a handful of towns are leading the charge to recovery.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, many of the markets making the speediest recoveries also turn out to be some hardest-hit by the foreclosure crisis. Florida, which was walloped from the housing bust, contains a majority of these market forerunners.

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Drawing on rankings compiled by Realtor.com that determine top recovering markets -- based on measures including year-over-year median price appreciation, year-over-year median inventory age and year-over-year inventory reduction -- AOL Real Estate brings you the top 10 towns on the road to recovery. Click the gallery above to see the full list.