Housing Markets That Are Hot And Those That Are Not

It's a mixed bag for residential real estate across the U.S. In some locales, home buyers are gaining ground, while in others, sellers have the upper hand. This week's roundup of reports from across the Web takes a closer look.
By: Lauren Baier Kim: The Wall Street Journal Online
Here's a look at what's new in real-estate markets across the U.S. from around the Web. (Some links may require registration or subscriptions.)

Los Angeles median price hits record high

Home prices in Los Angeles County continued to rise last month, despite indications that the market may be slowing, says the Los Angeles Times. In March, the median home price rose to $506,000, surpassing the half-million-dollar mark for the first time in the region's history, the article says, double the median price of four years ago. However, there's also slowing price appreciation, fewer sales and more houses for sale, all signs of a slowdown, the Los Angeles Times quotes an economist from the University of California, Los Angeles as saying. Using conventional financing and a 20% down payment, a household would need an annual salary of at least $120,000 to purchase an area home at the current median price, according to the article.

A seller's market in San Antonio

A half a million dollars could go a long way in San Antonio, Texas, where the median price was $131,900 in the first quarter of this year, up 9% from the same period a year before, says San Antonio Express-News. Area sellers continue to have the upper hand there, where the number of existing homes on the market dropped to 7,702 at the end of March, down 8.5% from the number of houses available in March 2005, the article says. However, home buyers are unlikely to face getting priced out of the market or find a lack of homes to choose from, thanks to plenty of new-home construction in the area, the Express-News says.

Sluggish luxury-home sales in Greater Boston area

It's not a rosy picture for sellers of very high-end residential properties in the Greater Boston area. Home owners who purchased a property for at least $4 million or more in this market a "short time ago" could face steep discounts if they try to sell now, says the Boston Business Journal. Earlier this month, the inventory of homes on the market in this price category was up 70% from a year ago, the trade journal says. Properties that have a waterfront view and plenty of acreage tend to sell better, it reports. Residential properties priced at $2 million or more are garnering 89% of the original asking price, the Boston Business Journal says. (Whereas single-family homes over the area's entire price range are selling at 94% of the original asking price and condos are going for 92% of the initial asking price.)

Cheaper condos in Myrtle Beach

Condominiums along the Grand Stand, a coastal resort destination in South Carolina's Myrtle Beach, are taking longer to sell, says The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, S.C. In the first quarter of this year, the number of condos for sale was three times the number of those on the market in the same period last year, the article says. The number of condos sold in the first quarter of this year was 4% less than the number of those sold in the first three months of last year, The Sun News says. A 24% increase in median condo price between the first quarters of 2005 and 2006 has spurred many condo owners to put their properties on the market, the paper says. This, coupled with a lessening demand and a greater supply of units available, is giving buyers more bargaining power, the article says. "Folks are realizing that the housing boom is drawing to an end," the paper quotes a senior economist for Wachovia, a financial-services company based in Charlotte, N.C., as saying.

Central Oregon sees rising prices

There's no sight of a real-estate slump in Central Oregon, where housing sales are still strong, says The Bulletin of Bend, Ore. In most areas there, the number of homes sold in the first quarter of this year exceeded the number sold during the same quarter last year. Madras, Ore. is experiencing a boom, as the number of houses sold in the first quarter jumped 184% to 54, compared with the same period last year. For the most part, price tags are also up - in Bend, Ore., the median price of a single-family home rose at the end of the first quarter to $327,500, a 30.5% increase from 2005. Driving the boom are home owners relocating from more expensive markets, and local buyers trading in their residences for larger ones, The Bulletin says.

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Send links to articles about residential-real-estate markets to Lauren Kim at lauren.kim@wsj.com.