National Home Prices
Home prices declined in the third quarter but Denver home prices remained fairly steady
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) announced on Thursday (November 30th) that home prices rose a mere .9 percent during the third quarter of 2006, which is a decrease from the 1.2 percent gain seen during the second quarter. This report follows the National Association of Realtors’ recent report that the median price for existing homes slipped 1.2 percent to $224,900 during the same period. These reports differ since the OFHEO tallies repeat sales of the same houses while NAR reports the median prices for all homes sold during the quarter. The median price of a Denver home remained fairly steady at $253,000, which is only a .1 precent decrease. The National Association of Realtors also reported that existing home sales in the third quarter (July-September) fell in 38 states. Sales retreated to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.27 million units nationwide, which is a 12.7% decrease from the same period a year ago. On the bright side, a recent Wall Street Journal online survey found that economists reported that "the worst of the housing slowdown is over," by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. However, the 49 economists surveyed said they expected home prices, measured by the OFHEO’s index, to fall by 0.5% next year. The Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators showed a 0.2% rise in October, which was a performance shy of analysts’ forecasted 0.3% rise. Improvements in the money supply and consumer expectations were partly offset by a sharp decline in housing permits.
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