Did Housing Prices in Your Market Climbed 9% or More in 2006?
In 2006 housing prices increased in almost all metropolitan markets across the nation, based on the Housing Price Index (HPI) published by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise (OFHEO). In particular, single-family house prices in 2996 increased in 256 out of the 282 metropolitan markets tracked by the index. Bend, OR, Wenatchee, WA, Provo-Orem, UT, and Salt Lake City, UT were the four markets that registered the largest housing price increases ranging between 19.8% and 21.4%. The four worst markets where housing prices declined by as much as 2.7 to 5.3% were Monroe, MI, Jackson, MI, Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, CA, and Kokomo, IN. Overall, these developments spell good news for the nation's single-family housing market but they should be viewed with caution as the recent data from the National Association of Realtors for housing sales in the month of February of 2007 show a year-over-year decline in the volume of sales and in median housing sales prices in all regions except the West. See if your market is among the 61 that saw their housing prices rise in 2006 by 9% or more.
According to OFHEO, the HPI is a broad measure of the movement of single-family housing prices, which, because of the breadth of the sample it is based on, it provides more information than is available in other house price indexes. As such, the HPI serves as a timely, accurate indicator of house price trends at various geographic levels, from the national level to the metropolitan area level.
Charlotte was stated on CNBC to still increasing unlike several bubble cities.
Here is the link that I believe Cyndy is referring to:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/18036922/
Nice article (4th video down the page).