Home prices experience continued growth

The association’s second-quarter metro area home price report, covering changes in 149 metropolitan statistical areas, shows 67 areas with double-digit annual increases in existing single-family home prices. In all, 94 metro areas saw increases above the U.S. historic average of 6.4 percent.

The national median existing single-family home price was $208,500 in the second quarter, up 13.6 percent from the second quarter of 2004. The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

NAHB Chief Economist David Lereah said the price gains are unprecedented.

“When you look at appreciation of home prices relative to the overall rate of inflation, these are the strongest increases on record,” he said. “The continuing shortages of housing inventory are driving the price gains.”

The biggest price increases were in Arizona’s Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area, where the first-quarter median price of $243,400 was up 47 percent from a year earlier.

Median second-quarter home prices ranged from $73,400 in Danville, Ill., to nearly 10 times that amount in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area of California, where the median price was $726,900.