While many housing markets across the country are dealing with drops in home prices and sales volume, there are lots of areas that are bucking the trend with healthy gains.

Among them: the Pacific Northwest, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas, says Lawrence Yun, senior economist with the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

In Seattle, Coldwell Banker Bain CEO William Riss says single-family homes are in high demand and will appreciate in value by 9 percent to 12 percent this year, following a 12-percent increase in 2006.  Read more

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Massachusetts’ home prices increased in March for the first time in a year, the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® reported yesterday in its monthly report on the real estate market.

The median price for a single-family house was $344,000 in March – 0.1 percent more than a year ago. Condominium prices increased by 3 percent to $279,000.

“They’re hovering where they were a year ago, which shows the market has stabilized,” said Doug Azarian, president of the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®. Read more

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Anticipating cuts in property taxes by the state Legislature, the Palm Beach County administrator ordered countywide reductions in next year’s budget, a decision that could mean there won’t be enough money to hire sheriff’s deputies, buy fire vehicles or open planned library facilities.

County Administrator Bob Weisman said Wednesday that he expects county commissioners to view the measures as mistakes — but ones they will have no choice but to implement.

“It’s bad government to do it,” Weisman said. “It’s going to leave government unable to do things for the people that they should.”

In a memo to commissioners, Weisman said the county will have to cut down to the bare basics of its 2007 budget of $4.4 billion while dealing with skyrocketing gas, insurance and construction costs. Read more

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Lauderhill — The chance to buy a four-bedroom, three-bath house for $176,500 — many thousands below market value — had Suzanne Palmer dreaming big.

The 34-year-old single mother of three from Sunrise joined more than 1,000 would-be homeowners who lined up Thursday afternoon outside Lauderhill City Hall to apply for a housing lottery. The lucky 13 winners today will be able to buy a house under an affordable housing program administered by the city.

The lottery drawing will be at noon at City Hall. And although participants don’t have to appear at the drawing, Palmer will be waiting eagerly for the results. Those who win should find themselves living in a place called Renaissance Village a little more than a year from now.

“It’s a blessing and if it happens, the Lord knows I’ll be grateful,” said Palmer, who has twice failed to get a bank loan to buy a home in recent years. A co-worker who saw a flier alerted her to the lottery. She decided to apply since she met the guidelines, earning $23,000 a year as a secretary for a state agency — well below the $49,100 ceiling for a household of four.

So she stood in line for about an hour Thursday to fill out an index card. And as applicants registered and left, more arrived. It took four hours for the line that wound around City Hall to clear. At 8 p.m., when officials stopped taking registrations, 1,050 had registered, said Vincent Miller, manager of the city’s Office of Business and Neighborhood Enrichment. Read more

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Prices of single-family homes across the nation depreciated in January compared with January 2006, the worst results in more than 13 years, according to a housing index released yesterday by Standard & Poor’s.

The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index showed a drop of 0.7 percent from a year ago in the price of a single-family home based on existing homes tracked in 10 metropolitan markets. In January 1994, the index dropped 0.9 percent compared with January 1993, S&P said. Read more

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Two years of stormy real estate markets appear to have created an ideal climate for bargain-minded house hunters who know where to look.

Real estate experts say a switch in the psychology of the housing market has helped buyers to see the silver lining around the market’s storm clouds and usher in the fine shopping weather.

“We are now in a solid buyer’s market,” says David Lereah, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). “It has been a seller’s market for many years, but now we are seeing people across the country making deals and bringing prices down.” Read more

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Reports on the sales of both new and existing homes were released on Friday, March 23 and Monday, March 26 and they pointed in distinctly opposite directions.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released figures showing an unexpected surge in existing home sales for February on the heels of a strong January. NAR said that this was the highest level of sales since last April. On the other hand the U.S. Census Bureau in conjunction with the Department of Housing and Urban Development had less upbeat news in its report on new home sales for February.

The NAR report showed an increase in total existing home sales including single family residences, townhouses, condos, and coops. Sales rose 3.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for an annual rate of 6.69 million units from a downwardly revised January figure of 6.44 million units. In spite of the increase which was the biggest monthly jump since March 2004, February’s preliminary figures were still 3.6 percent below figures for the same month in 2006. Sales were strongest in the Northeast, up 14.2 percent over January. This was the only region posting a gain over February, 2006, up 3.4 percent. Read more

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Prices of single-family homes nationwide fell 0.7 in January compared with a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index.

In January 1994, the index dropped 0.9 percent compared with January 1993, the index recorded.

S&P/Case-Shiller tracks the prices of existing home in 20 metropolitan markets. Read more

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Real estate agents across South Florida swear they’re busy as the spring home-selling season approaches. But for the most part, finicky buyers are waiting for prices to keep falling and for property-tax relief to trickle down from Tallahassee.

“Phone calls are up, and we have a lot of buyers sitting on the fence,” said Mike Kleinrichert, an agent with Keller Williams Realty in Wellington. “But we’ve got people saying, ‘I’m not going to buy until I know what’s going on.’”

Existing home sales and prices fell across Palm Beach County in February as the housing slump settles in for what experts say could be another long year.

New revelations of the troubles in the so-called subprime mortgage industry threaten to prolong the housing doldrums, experts say. High-risk borrowers who got home loans during the boom years now are having trouble making the monthly payments and some are losing their homes to foreclosure.

Last month in Palm Beach County, the median price of an existing home was $374,300, down $16,700 from $391,000 a year ago. Sales plunged 21 percent, to 560 from 707 a year ago. Read more

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