Median single-family home prices decreased on a 12-month basis in all US regions with rates ranging from 8.6% in the Midwest to 26.6% in the West, according to the recent data provided by the National Association of Realtors. This was not the case though among the 155 metropolitan markets surveyed by NAR.
In fact, among these 155 markets, there were eighteen metropolitan areas that registered median price increases in excess of 1% between the second quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009. Even more surprisingly, four of these markets, namely, Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL, Cumberland, MD-WV, Elmira, NY, and Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX, registered median single-family home price increases in excess of 10% and up to 30%.
The graph below presents these eighteen markets and the respective median price increases they registered over the period Q2 2008-Q2 2009.
Figure 1. Single-Family Housing Markets with Rising Prices, Q2 2008-Q2 2009
Sources:NAR, Property-Investing.Org
It is interesting to note that in all these markets, except Baton Rouge, LA and Florence, SC, median single-family home prices in the second quarter of 2009 were not only higher than their second quarter 2008 level but also higher than their 2007 level,as the graph below indicates. Furthermore, in most of them, median prices were also higher than their 2006 level.
Figure 2. Single-Family House Price Changes 2006 - Q2 2009
Sources:NAR, Property-Investing.Org
It is interesting to note the cases of Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX, Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX, and Amarillo, TX, which portray gradually rising prices from 2006 until the second quarter of 2009, as if they have not been touched by the crisis. However, these changes are 12-month or longer-period changes and do not capture short-term fluctuations that might have taken place in response to the economic crisis.
In any case though, the fact that median single-family home prices in the second quarter of 2009 in many of these markets were higher than both their 2006 and 2007 levels is a cause for skepticism, which implies that we need to better understand the underlying fundamentals behind these price increases before concluding anything about what lies ahead.
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