Washington – The sizzling housing market may have cooled at the end of 2005, but still-surging home prices did not reflect it, according to a report Wednesday from a real-estate trade group.
The National Association of Realtors said a record 72 metropolitan areas out of 145 surveyed had double-digit gains in sales prices for existing homes in the final three months of 2005 when compared with the same period a year earlier.
The previous record, in the fall of 2004, was 69 cities with double-digit price increases for existing homes.
“Although home sales have eased, the tremendous momentum in price appreciation was sustained in the fourth quarter because tight inventories still favored sellers,” said David Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors.
Sales of both new and existing homes have set records for five straight years. Analysts are forecasting a slowdown in the sale pace this year as rising mortgage rates cool demand.
For the final three months of last year, the median sales price for an existing home nationally was $213,000, an increase of 13.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2004, when it was $187,500. The median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.
