WASHINGTON | The average price of houses sold in the country's 32 largest metro areas during 2007 declined by 3.7 percent, according to the first official government figures covering the previous year.
The $11,900 slide -- almost $1,000 a month, from $324,900 at the end of 2006 to $313,000 on Dec. 31 -- is somewhat larger than the December-to-December drop-off recorded by the National Association of Realtors, which reported a more modest 1.4 percent slip in the median house price.
But the study by the Federal Housing Finance Board includes the sale of new homes, which are often price leaders, both up and down, in local housing markets, whereas the NAR survey does not. NAR also does not count deals that take place outside local multiple-listing services.
The slippage recorded by the housing finance board isn't countrywide, however. Of the 32 market studies, nine actually experienced rising prices, some quite substantial -- and also probably somewhat aberrational.
In Kansas City, for example, prices literally leaped forward in the 12-month period between when 2007 began and when it ended, jumping nearly 35 percent, from $194,500 to $261,000.
Obviously, folks in Kansas City aren't bidding up prices by that much. After all, they are suffering under the same mortgage meltdown as people elsewhere. But they are buying more expensive houses than normal.
The same probably holds true in Virginia Beach, where the average is up 16.2 percent, from $299,100 to $347,600; Indianapolis, where the average rose 13.5 percent, from $168,000 and $190,600, and Portland, Ore., where the average went up 12.2 percent, from $327,400 to $367,400.
The other 23 markets in the housing finance board's quarterly survey didn't fare nearly as well.
Las Vegas, the poster child for the price bubble, took an 18.5 percent hit last year. The average price in the city that never sleeps fell $75,700 -- about $6,300 a month -- from $409,600 to $333,900.
Of course, some of this is the result of more than the usual number of lesser-priced homes changing hands. But it also cannot be denied that Las Vegas has been unable to keep up with the pace it has been setting for itself since the turn of the century.
Boston took it on the nose, too. The average in Beantown fell 13.5 percent, from $385,900 to $333,700, a total of $52,000 or $4,350 a month. But it was worse in the normally -- at least relatively speaking -- inexpensive metro areas of Detroit and Cleveland.
In Motown, the average price of both new and resale houses sold last year fell 13.9 percent, from $215,600 to $185,600. In Cleveland, the average swooned 14.5 percent, from $250,600 to $214,300.
The wide variations in selling prices reported in the government survey has led to a reordering among the nation's most expensive cities, especially in the sixth through the 10th positions.
Even though the average slipped 3.5 percent in the San Francisco-Oakland market, from $672,200 to $649,000, the Bay Area remains the nation's most expensive metro area for housing.
No. 2 is still San Diego, remaining a distant second at $558,300, an 8.5 percent decline from $610,400 a year ago.
The Los Angeles area now ranks as the third most expensive market in the country at $502,300. That's off 11 percent from $564,900 the year before.
New York is fourth on the dubious top-10 list. Prices in the Big Apple remained relatively stable, falling a mere 0.5 percent, from $473,100 to $470,700.
No. 5 Washington took it a little harder. Prices in the Nation's Capital dropped 3.8 percent -- which is right on the national average -- from $482,600 to $464,500.
