GLOBAL INSIGHT came out with new prices for 317 metro areas in the United States. It’s a must read for investors even though it’s 2nd quarter (i.e. ancient) data.
Another generality is that appreciation continued to be strongest in those parts of the country that came late to the boom in house prices. This applies to the interior and northern parts of the western U.S.: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
Real estate data wonks will like this tidbit.
As a rule, however, it is important to recognize that median transaction prices, such as those from the Commerce Department and NAR tend to exaggerate price declines during episodes of weak market conditions (and visa-versa). This happens because lower priced houses experience disproportionately higher turnover rates in a down market, which increases their representation in sales totals and introduces a negative bias on median measures. This is also why our analysis uses OFHEO data, which are not based on median transaction prices, but on repeated sales results for identical properties over time.
If you are sleeping too well, take a quick look at the appendices. That’ll solve that.