On Wednesday, a report from a real estate trade group said that the sizzling housing market may have cooled at the end of 2005, but still-surging home prices did not reflect it.
"A record 72 metropolitan areas had double-digit gains in sales prices for existing homes in the final three months of 2005 when compared with the same period a year earlier." reported by the National Association of Realtors. Some 145 metropolitan areas were surveyed, overall.
69 cities with double-digit price increases for existing homes, was the record from the fall of 2004.
David Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors said "Although home sales have eased, the tremendous momentum in price appreciation was sustained in the fourth quarter because tight inventories still favored sellers."
"With sales slowing, the supply of homes on the market has risen, which will help keep a lid on price increases in the coming year," he also added "we are entering a period of a more normal balance in supply and demand."
The median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less, the median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less, and that is for the final three months of last year.
Analysts are forecasting a slowdown in the sale pace this year as rising mortgage rates cool demand, and they said sales of both new and existing homes have set records for five straight years.
In the fourth quarter, the biggest jump in prices was at the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area of Arizona, the prices increased by 48.9% to $268,400. After them was the the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area of Florida, where in the 4th quarter, home prices jumped by 48 percent of last year to $293,100. In 3rd place was Orlando, Florida, price increase of 42 percent to $261,800.
In the 4th Quarter the highest sales price was the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area of California, where the median price was $747,000. The lowest median price in the Realtors survey was in the Danville, Ill., area where the median sales price was $63,800, which is in the other end of the scale.
By: Jron Magcale
http://www.realestateportal.org/article.php?story=20060217123609705