June 28, 2011 (Jeff Alan)

Altos Research has released the first edition of its 20-City Mid-Cities Report which finds that housing trends in mid-sized markets behaves differently than housing trends in major metropolitan areas.

The Mid-Cities Composite, which includes data from Albuquerque, Austin, Baltimore, Boise, Boulder, Charleston, Dover, Durham, Jacksonville, Honolulu, Memphis, Naples, Nashville, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Reno, Sacramento, St. Louis, San Antonio, and Ventura County, CA, found that the same general trend in prices and inventory occur between the Mid-Cities market and the major markets, but the Mid-Cities have shown less volatility over the past three years.

The chart below shows the difference in year-over-year price changes between the Mid-Cities Composite and the Altos 20 City Composite which tracks price changes in major metropolitan areas.

Home prices in the Mid-Cities Composite were up 1.11 percent in May to $254,046 compared to April’s $251,247. Over the last three months, Orlando (7.39%), Boise (5.88%), and Boulder (5.54%) were the top performers.

Over the last month the top performers in price have been Boulder (4.05%), Orlando (3.04%) and Boise (2.0%).

Three markets had decreasing prices over the last three months, Honolulu (-2.64%), Reno (-0.33), and Charleston (-0.24). Over the past month, only Honolulu (-0.70%) and Dover (-0.31%) reported a drop prices.

The housing inventory of the Mid-Cities Composite showed an increase of 0.74 percent from April to May and increase of 2.28 percent over the last three months.

The 7 day and 90 day averages for median prices and inventory are both trending upward.

Tags: Altos Research, Mid-Cities Composite, major metropolitan areas, housing prices, housing inventory, housing trends, housing inventory

Source:
Altos Research