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May 20, 2008
Housing Price Change in Pennsylvania
Last week Freddie Mac as part of a release of its financials published data on housing prices in the first quarter of this year. The data show a decline in housing prices in Pennsylvania of 1.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008, the first such decline since 1995. The fall in prices in Pennsylvania was smaller than the declines measured in 37 states, including five of Pennsylvania’s nearest neighbors.
Freddie Mac's Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index (CMHPI) for the rest of the state will not be released until June 3rd. This Thursday the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) will publish its own housing price data for the first quarter. As a preview here is data on the change in housing prices in Pennsylvania over the past couple of years in Freddie Mac's index and the OFHEO's index. Note the figures in the table below have not been adjusted for inflation. The last row is contains the most recent data we have.
Unfavorable credit conditions, rising unemployment (up by 47,000 since April of last year), and perhaps a bit of a buyers market raise the likelihood of larger price declines to come.
The next figure graphs the percent change in housing prices from the same quarter a year ago in Pennsylvania from 1975 to 2008 in both Freddie Mac's and the OFHEO's indexes. Again these figures are not adjusted for inflation.
Posted by Price at May 20, 2008 03:22 PM