Home Prices Get Cut in Major U.S. Cities
From Homescape
written by Amy Le on Wednesday, April 23, 8:50AM
With friends and loved ones currently looking for new homes, I’m often asked, is it a good time to buy? If you live in a dual-income household and have a credit score at least 680 or above, the market couldn’t be riper for you. The credit crunch and subprime fallout has created a shrinking pool of potential buyers and more sellers are lowering their prices tags to attract the fabulous few.
BusinessWeek magazine and with the help from Altos Research, a real-time housing research firm, ranked 14 of the country’s largest cities based on how much sellers have cut listing prices in the last 12 months. Listing information for New York City isn’t included, but a recent report suggests that Manhattan prices have climbed 13 percent compared to a year ago. The other exception to the big city price cuts was Dallas, where home prices have actually risen more than 6 percent.
Top 14 markets
Here are some of the nation’s best buying opportunities based on BusinessWeek’s analysis of the percentage change in annual asking prices from April 2007 to 2008:
1. Sacramento, CA
Change in annual asking price: -29.06 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $226,978
2. Phoenix, AZ
Change in annual asking price: -20.54 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $257,157
3. Los Angeles, CA
Change in annual asking price: -20.35 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $490,428
4. Las Vegas, NV
Change in annual asking price: -18.95 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $284,188
5. Atlanta, GA
Change in annual asking price: -18.16 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $185,455
6. San Diego, CA
Change in annual asking price: -16.90 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $495,596
7. Boston, MA
Change in annual asking price: -13.42 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $359,285
8. Miami, FL
Change in annual asking price: -12.16 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $395,771
9. Chicago, IL
Change in annual asking price: -10.98 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $262,506
10. Seattle, WA
Change in annual asking price: -3.69 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $472,710
11. Washington, DC
Change in annual asking price:-3.41 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $425,821
12. San Francisco, CA
Change in annual asking price: -3.30 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $820,621
13. Houston, TX
Change in annual asking price: -2.35 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $145,415
14. Denver, CO
Change in annual asking price: -0.55 percent
April 2008 median asking price: $224,017
Home sales down
A report released this week from the National Association of Realtors also found that sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums dropped by 2 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million units.
The national median price of a home sold last month dropped to $200,700, a decline of 7.7 percent from the median price a year ago. That was the second-biggest year-over-year price decline on records dating back to 1999.
For March, sales were down 6.5 percent in the Midwest and 3.5 percent in the South but increased by 2.2 percent in the Northeast and 2.2 percent in the West.
The Northeast was the only region of the country to experience a rise in median prices, which were up 4.6 percent compared with a year ago. Prices were down in all other regions of the country, dropping by 14.7 percent in the West, 7.1 percent in the South and 5.3 percent in the Midwest.
Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@homescape.com.
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