Mixed Home Price Performance Continues in Metro Areas= , One-Third Show Gains

WASHINGT= ON, May 13, 2008

According to the latest quarterly surv= ey by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), = one out of three metropolitan statistical areas showed higher median existing single-family home prices from a year earlier.

In the first quarter of 2008, the largest single-family home price incr= ease in the entire nation was the Binghamton, N.Y., area, where the median price= of $109,700 rose 11.8 percent from the same period last year. = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp;

NAR President Richard Gaylord said the U.= S. market is very dynamic. “It’s more important than ever to examine what’s happening with home prices at the city and neighborhood level,” Gaylo= rd said. “The old real est= ate mantra of ‘location, location, location’ is perhaps more releva= nt today than ever before. Consu= mers should check with REALTORS® for local expertise on what’s going o= n in their own area because conditions can vary considerably from one neighborho= od to the next.”

A proportionately larger slowdown in home sales from a year ago in high-cost markets is continuing to drag down the aggregate national median price. In the first quarter, the median existing single-family home price was $196,30= 0, down 7.7 percent from the first quarter of 2007 when the median price was $= 212,600. The national median normally is a = typical market price, where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.=

Lawrence Yun,= NAR chief economist, said the numbers don’t tell the whole story. “These are highly unusual re= sults because there were very few jumbo loan originations in the latest quarter, = so sales are much slower in high-cost areas, and at the same time foreclosures related to subprime mortgages rose,” he said. “Neighborhoods with little subprime exposure are holding on very well, while prices have fallen in neighborhoods with a wide prevalence of subprime loans because more foreclo= sed properties are being sold at discounted prices.”

Yun pointed out that homeowners with subprime loans account for less than = 10 percent of all homeowners. “Even so, subprime mortgages account for more than half of all foreclosures. Sharp price dec= lines are principally in neighborhoods where subprime lending has been widely prevalent,” he said.

The typical seller in the first quarter, = who purchased their home six years ago, saw a sizable equity gain despite a pri= ce drop from a year ago. The med= ian increase in value for sellers who purchased that home in the first quarter = of 2002 is 23.8 percent, and the median home equity accumulation is $37,700.

“The typical home buyer today plans= to own that property for 10 years, and with that kind of long-term view most people will do quite well,” Gaylord said. “Inventories have stabilized= and mortgage availability is beginning to improve, so we expect overall prices = to go positive during the second half of the year.”

Median first-quarter metro area single-fa= mily home prices ranged from a very affordable $65,400 in the Saginaw-Saginaw Township North area of Michigan, to nearly 12 times that amount in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area of California, where the median price was $780,000. The second most expensive area was San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont,= at $701,700, followed by Honolulu at $620,000.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate on a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage fell = to 5.88 percent in the first quarter from 6.23 percent in the fourth quarter; = the rate was 6.22 percent in the first quarter of 2007.

Regionally, the median existing single-fa= mily home price in the Northeast rose 3.2 percent to $280,000 in the first quart= er from the same period in 2007. After Binghamton, the strongest price increase in the Northeast was in Elmira, N.= Y., at $82,500, up 9.6 percent from the first quarter of 2007, followed by Glens Falls, N.Y., with a median price of $163,100, up 7.7 percent.

The Nati= onal Association of REALTORS®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.