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If you are in the market for a home, you know this: The housing market is hot, hot, hot. And, according to the latest quarterly survey by the National Association of Realtors -- still cooking.
The association's second quarter Metropolitan Area Home Price Report shows home values are holding strong, growing by double-digits in 49 of the 128 regions surveyed -- the biggest number of double-digit gains ever. Housing prices vary by region, but the median home price nationally was up 9.1 percent to $183,800 from $168,500 in the same quarter last year. The median is the typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
David Lereah, NAR's chief economist says the shortage of available homes combined with a hot sales market is great for sellers. But buyers have advantages, too, thanks to low mortgage interest rates.
Regionally, the strongest increase was once again in the Northeast where the median resale price during the ssecond quarter was $214,800, rising 17.6 percent from a year earlier.
But it was out in the desert that the home buyers really felt the heat.
Las Vegas saw the most dramatic annual spike on record, according to the NAR. The median cost for an existing single family home jumped to $269,900 -- a 52.4 percent increase from the same quarter last year.
The main reason was a lack of available homes. "Las Vegas only had a 1.7-month supply of homes on the market in the second quarter, compared with a 4.2-month supply for the nation as a whole," said Lereah.
The most expensively-priced homes in the nation are in the Anaheim-Santa Ana (Orange Co., Calif.), area with a second quarter median price of $655,300, up 38.7 percent from the same quarter of 2003. Next came San Francisco Bay area at $647,300, which was a 15.5 percent increase and San Diego where the median price was $559,700.
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