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TUESDAY'S
TOUR AND TIP
First-Time on Record - All Metro Areas Showing
Home Price Gains
WASHINGTON
(August 13, 2003) - For the first time since reporting began in 1982, home
prices in the second quarter increased in all metropolitan areas for which data
is available compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the
latest survey by the National Association of Realtors®.
The
association's second-quarter metro area home price report, covering changes in
126 metropolitan statistical areas,* shows 40 areas with double-digit annual
increases in median existing-home prices and no areas with price declines.
David
Lereah, NAR's chief economist, said this is the most exceptional home price
survey the association has ever reported. "Normally, even in very strong
sales markets, there are about a half-dozen metros somewhere in the country that
for one reason or another have a temporary price decline," he said.
"Not only is every market positive, but also a record number of
metropolitan areas are experiencing double-digit price gains."
The
national median existing-home price was $168,900 during the second quarter, up
7.4 percent from the second quarter of 2002 when the median price was $157,300.
The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and
half sold for less.
NAR
President Cathy Whatley, owner of Buck & Buck Inc. in Jacksonville, Fla.,
said there are simply more buyers than sellers in the market. "We have
relatively lean inventories of homes available on the market in a year in which
we will set a sales record," she said. "The supply-demand imbalance
is the fundamental reason for the strong price gains."
Lereah
said price appreciation is expected to moderate. "With a modest, gradual
rise in mortgage interest rates going into next year, home sales will slow a
bit and help to bring the market closer to equilibrium between buyers and
sellers," he said. "This will reduce pressure on home prices and the
rate of price increases should slow, but in most areas they'll still rise a
little faster than historic norms."
The
strongest increase was in Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., with a median price
of $212,600, up 23.5 percent from the second quarter of 2002. Next came the
Providence, R.I., area at $228,900, up 23.2 percent. Third was the Los
Angeles-Long Beach area, where the second quarter median price of $337,200 was
20.6 percent higher than a year earlier.
Median
second-quarter metro resale prices ranged from $87,300 in Beaumont-Port Arthur,
Texas, to more than six times that amount in the San Francisco Bay area, where
the median price was $560,200. The second most expensive area was Anaheim-Santa
Ana (Orange Co., Calif.), with a second quarter median resale price of
$471,700, followed by Boston at $409,100.
Other
low-cost markets include Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y., the second least-costly
area at $90,400, and, South Bend-Mishawaka, Ind., with a second quarter typical
resale home price of $91,000.
Regionally,
the strongest increase was in the Northeast where the median resale price
during the second quarter was $182,500, a rise of 13.6 percent from a year earlier.
After Providence, the strongest increase in the region was in the
Nassau-Suffolk area of New York, where the typical resale price was $363,700,
up 18.4 percent from a year ago, followed by Atlantic City, N.J., with a median
price of $164,600, up 18.3 percent, and the New York City area at $350,900, up
15.5 percent. Eight other metros in the Northeast, including Philadelphia and
Hartford, also show double-digit median price gains.
In
the West, the median existing-home price of $233,200 was 8.6 percent above the
second quarter of 2002. After Riverside-San Bernardino and Los Angeles-Long
Beach, the highest increase in the region was in the Sacramento area, with a
median price of $243,600, up 20.1 percent from the second quarter of 2002.
Anaheim-Santa Ana rose 14.7 percent, while Honolulu, with a second quarter
median price of $375,000, rose 13.6 percent from a year earlier. San Diego, Las
Vegas and Reno also experienced double-digit increases.
In
the Midwest, the median resale home price of $140,800 during the second quarter
was 6.0 percent higher than the same period in 2002. The strongest increase in
the region was in the Topeka, Kan., area, with a median price of $100,700, up
20.2 percent in the last year. The next highest increase was in Champaign-Urbana-Rantoul,
Ill., where the median price of $122,700 was 14.8 percent higher than the
second quarter of 2002, followed by the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island area of
Iowa and Illinois at $107,200, up 14.3 percent. Four other Midwestern metros
also experienced double-digit gains.
The
second quarter median existing-home price in the South was $157,400, up 5.9
percent from a year ago. The strongest increase in the region was in the
Knoxville, Tenn., area, where the second-quarter median price of $141,300 was
up 18.7 percent from a year earlier. Next came Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay,
Fla., at $130,100, up 16.5 percent, Daytona Beach, Fla., with a median of
$122,800, an increase of 16.4 percent, and the Baltimore area at $204,200, up
16.1 percent. Nine other metro areas in the South, including Washington, D.C.,
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood-Pompano Beach, Fla., and Jacksonville, Fla.,
experienced double-digit price increases.
The
National Association of Realtors®, "The Voice for Real Estate"
Adams
Fairfield Realty
Chrissy Neumann
"Making You Feel At
Home"
www.castlesbychrissy.com
404.925.5335
fax - 770.565.4477