Despite a recession that has dampened sales in the moveup market, the average price of houses sold passed the $150,000 mark late last year.
The average selling price of both new and used homes reached $150,000 on Dec. 31 on the strength of a 5.3 percent increase from $142,700 a year earlier, according to a quarterly survey of 32 cities by the Federal Housing Finance Board.
Prices in nine of those markets declined, meaning that in those cities more people bought homes at the lower end of the price spectrum than at the higher end. But prices rose in the other 23 localities, some by more than 20 percent.
The largest increase was registered in Honolulu, which is now far and away the most expensive city in the country for housing.
The average price in the Hawaiian capital is a whopping $338,700, or 25.4 percent higher than it was 12 months ago, when the average price of a home there was a ”mere” $270,100.
The average is nearly $100,000 less in Los Angeles, which has climbed into the No. 2 spot on the list of high-cost cities. The average price in the City of Angels was $239,000 at year`s end, up 7.9 percent from $221,500 a year earlier.
Two other California cities, San Francisco and San Diego, are now third and fifth, respectively, with Washington breaking the West`s almost total domination of this dubious list at No. 4.
The average cost of a house in San Francisco is now $227,800, a modest 0.9 percent increase from $225,700 a year ago. The average in Washington is $221,000, up 2.3 percent from $216,000. In San Diego the average is $220,400, a 9.9 percent increase from $200,500.
The next tier of high-cost cities features only one West Coast market, Seattle. The others are all on the Eastern Seaboard.
New York is sixth at $186,600, up 4 percent from $179,500, and Seattle is seventh at $168,300, a 3.6 percent increase from $162,400.
Eighth is Baltimore at $164,600, up 0.9 percent from $163,100. Boston is ninth at $160,200, a 2.6 percent decline from $164,500 a year ago, and Atlanta is 10th at $156,700, up 16.8 percent from $134,200.
Prices are somewhat lower in Middle America, and home buyers appear to be taking advantage of them by moving up to larger, better-equipped quarters.
Big increases were reported in Houston, 28 percent; Milwaukee, 24.3; St. Louis, 23.2; Columbus, Ohio, 19.8; Dallas, 19.3; and Greensboro, N.C., 19.1.
The largest declines last year were recorded in Pennsylvania. The average fell 23.8 percent in Pittsburgh, from $125,800 to $95,800, and 20.6 percent in Philadelphia, from $164,100 to $130,300.
Of course, this doesn`t mean that the bottom has fallen out of these markets, or, for that matter, any other market where prices are receding. It simply means that lower-end, entry-level buyers are currently more active than higher-end, trade-up buyers.
Because of that, Pittsburgh is now the nation`s most affordable housing market. It is also the only one where the average price is less than $100,000. The rest of the low-cost list, in ascending order, includes Tampa, at $101,400, off 5.1 percent from $106,800; Phoenix at $108,100, down 5.6 percent from $114,500; Louisville, at $110,900, up 2.3 percent from $108,400, and Greensboro, N.C., at $112,900, an increase of 19.1 percent from $94,800.
– First-time buyers bucked national demographic trends last year, accounting for a 45 percent share of all home sales, according to a study by Chicago Title & Trust Co.
That`s the highest percentage since the Chicago Title survey was started in 1976. (First-time buyers have accounted for a greater number of sales in previous years, according to vice president John Pfister, but never a greater percentage of total sales.)
The Northeast region had the highest percentage of first-timers, 53 percent; the South, the lowest at 37.8 percent.
Chicago Title also reports that because of less expensive financing, last year`s first-ever buyers purchased more house for their money than their counterparts in previous years.
However, their aggressiveness was also fueled by dual incomes. In fact, two-income families made up nearly 90 percent of the entry-level population in 1991.
