Home Prices Rising in More Markets
Article by Robbie Whelan, Source: The Wall Street Journal
The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that U.S. median home prices rose 10% to $178,900 between the fourth quarter of 2011 and the fourth quarter of 2012. That’s the biggest yearly gain in the median price since the fourth quarter of 2005.
Of the 152 metro areas examined by the NAR, 133 posted yearly gains in median home price, while prices fell in 19 markets. In the third quarter of 2012, 120 markets showed yearly gains, while a year ago, in the fourth quarter of 2011, just 29 markets nationwide had posted annual median price gains.
“Home sales are on a sustained uptrend,” said Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s chief economist. “Home sales are being fueled by a pent-up demand and job creation, along with still favorable affordability conditions and rents rising at faster rates. Our population has been growing faster than overall housing stock, so supply and demand dynamics are very much at play.”
Housing markets in Western states and markets that were coming off of a low bottom after steep home price declines saw the biggest gains. Phoenix, which fits both of those descriptions, led the gainers, with prices rising 33.9%, followed by Detroit (31.3%), San Francisco (28.3%), Cape Coral, Fla. (25.8%) and San Jose (24.8%).
Of the handful of markets where prices still falling, the upstate New York town of Kingston was the worst (-7.9%), followed by Kankakee, Ill. (-7.0%), Erie, Penn. (-6.1%), Binghamton, N.Y., (-5.7%) and Rockford, Ill. (-4.8%).
Overall, median prices in the West region rose the most–by 20.1%–followed by the Midwest (9.2%), the South (9.1%) and the Northeast (0.7%).
