Interest Rate Roundup

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

NAR: Prices down 9% in Q3 2008; 79% of MSAs show declines

The National Association of Realtors just released its third quarter data on home prices and home sales. The price data really jumps out at you because it shows that median prices are falling in more metropolitan statistical areas than ever before.

Only 28 of 152 MSAs (18.4%) showed an increase in prices from the year-ago period. Four (2.6%) MSAs showed flat pricing, while 120 MSAs (78.9%) showed declines. For comparison sake, 54 of 150 MSAs (36%) showed falling prices in Q3 2007.

The national median price of a home was $200,500 in the quarter, 9% below the Q3 2007 price of $220,300. Sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million units, off 7.7% from the year-ago 5.46 million units.

The biggest YOY declines in prices (PDF link) were seen in the "usual suspects": Regions like Las Vegas-Paradise, NV (-28.4%), Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, FL (-31%), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA (-35.1%), Sacremento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, CA (-36.8%), and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA (-39.4%). Notable gains were mostly in Midwest and Farm Belt locations, like Witchita, KS (+5.5%), Tulsa, OK (+5.1%), Decatur, IL (+8.7%), and Bloomington-Normal, IL (+8.1%).

1 Comments:

  • That makes me feel good! I live between Bloomington and Decatur and was thinking of moving to sunny Fort Myers.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 18, 2008 at 10:53 AM  

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