Savings Account & MMA Rates
CD (Certificate of Deposit) RatesHome prices didn’t fall as quickly as expected in the final three months of 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors latest report.
In fact, home prices showed so much improvement that we have to wonder if they’ll really fall another 5% to 10% this year as some experts have projected.
The national median price of a home in the fourth quarter of 2009 was $172,900, down 4.1% from a year ago — far better than the 13.8% loss in late 2008 when the financial crisis struck.
(A median price is where half the homes sold for more, the other half for less.)
Fewer cities suffered the kind of double-digit declines that were so common during the recession — and put about one-in-five borrowers underwater on their mortgages.
Almost half of the markets the Realtors surveyed (67 of the 151) actually had higher median home prices, more than double the 30 cities that recorded price increases in the third quarter.
Prices in Akron, Ohio, for example, were 22.8% higher than a year ago, and in Cleveland they’re up close to 25%. Property values in Springfield, Ill. are more than 15% higher than they were in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Most of the places where prices continue to post big declines are in those states where the housing bubble was the biggest — Florida, Nevada, Arizona and California.
Las Vegas, Nev., for example, saw a 23.3% decline last year to a median price of $139,400 from $181,700 the year before.
Click here to find out how home prices are changing in your area.
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