Housing Price Statistics Show Long-Term Value of Homeownership

The latest federal statistics on housing prices in hundreds of local markets reveal patterns that haven't been making the news: While on a national basis homeowners have lost more than $1 trillion in equity since the end of the boom, the overwhelming majority of markets continue to show net cumulative value growth over the past 60 months.
· According to the third quarter survey released Nov. 25 by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, out of 292 metropolitan markets, 273 showed positive net home values over the course of the previous five years.

· Nationally, the survey found prices down 4% over the year, but still up almost 29% over five years.

· Unlike stocks, where your asset values can go from peak to zero in a matter of weeks, house values tend to be far slower moving, and can be more durable over extended periods.

· Forty-three metropolitan markets saw appreciation gains of 2% or higher in the past year, while others -- mainly in California, Florida and Nevada -- experienced double-digit deflation. Twenty-seven metropolitan areas around the country have racked up 50% or higher cumulative gains since 2003.

-- “Long-Term Numbers Tell a Different Story,” by Kenneth R. Harney, Washington Post, Dec. 6, 2008.