Oklahoma Home Prices Up

Thursday, November 29th 2007, 2:10 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma is bucking a national trend of declining home prices, according to government data released Thursday. Home prices increased 2.12 % in Oklahoma in the July-September period compared with the previous quarter and were up 5.54 % for the year, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said. Oklahoma ranked No. 12 in the nation in annual price appreciation.

Nationwide, home prices dipped 0.4 % in the third quarter, the first quarterly decline in 13 years.

The report also indicated Oklahoma had a relatively low number of foreclosure filings, amounting to about 1 % of total households over the last five quarters.

Economist Andrew Leventis of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said that in recent years Oklahoma home prices have not appreciated as much as prices have gone up in other parts of the country, and this has insulated the state from some of the market problems now being seen elsewhere.

``Some of the price correction we are seeing is an unraveling of excessive price growth that occurred earlier,'' Leventis said.

According to OFHEO's data, many of the cities and states experiencing the sharpest declines in the quarter were the same areas that had posted the largest increases a couple of years ago during the housing boom.

Annual price declines were steepest in California (down 3.6 %), Massachusetts (2.3 %), Michigan (3.7 %), Nevada (2.4 %) and Rhode Island (2.2 %).

Also, there have been fewer foreclosures in Oklahoma compared to other states because there hasn't been as much real estate investor speculation here, he said.

``Basically, all the cities we report on in Oklahoma seem to be doing quite well,'' he said.

The report showed Oklahoma City home prices increased 4.70 % for the year, 2.39 % for the quarter and 30.96 over five years.

Tulsa showed a yearly increase of 6.01 %, a quarterly increase of 2.02 % and a five-year increase of 19.36 %. Lawton showed a yearly increase of 6.86 % and a five-year increase of 37.42 %. Lawton's quarterly increase was not included in the report.