Boulder/Longmont ranks 223 in appreciation
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) released 4th quarter 2006 data last week. Nationally, home prices are 5.9% higher than last year and show a 1.1% increase for the quarter. OFHEO uses data compiled from conventional loans (new purchases and refinances less than $418,000) to compare same house sales over time. I think the statistics are fairly sound but I have one knock with them. In many markets including Boulder, there is a large percentage of homes that sell without using conventional financing. Most of these homes are in higher price ranges and these statistics do not include this sales data. That said, on with the data…
The Boulder/Longmont MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) showed a 1 year increase of 1.68% and an increase of .14% for the 4th quarter. The annual appreciation rates us 223rd nationally out of 282 MSA’s. Six months ago we were ranked 218th with an annual appreciation of 3.55 and a quarterly appreciation of 2.6%, obviously the market has slowed since last spring. Hopefully, we will see a jump in the next few months. Colorado is ranked 43rd with a 3.32% annual appreciation rate, but the quarterly rate of .87% ranks 33 nationally. The appreciation rate has decelerated nationally.
The states with the greatest rates of appreciation between 4th quarter 2005 and 4th quarter 2006 were: Utah (17.6%), Wyoming (14.3%), Idaho (14%), Washington (13.7%), and Oregon (13.5%). The states with the lowest appreciation for the same period were: Michigan (-.4%), Massachusetts (.5%), Ohio (1%), Indiana (2.3%), and Minnesota (2.5%).
Some other interesting statistics:
- California saw quarterly appreciation rates that were negative in 21 of the 26 ranked cities on OFHEO’s list.
- Prices in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina showed double digit growth, caused by lack of housing supply.
- Annual rates of appreciation slowed in all nine census division (Pacific, Mountain etc.) relative to the third quarter.
For more data and information please go directly to http://www.ofheo.gov/
