Our Wonderful Pacific Northwest's housing prices

Regarding the nation's current real estate market's relationship to my little neck of the woods, I am happy to report that the Pacific Northwest is holding up just fine. And, as you can see in the following table, the country's Number One City for price appreciation in the covered 291 metro areas was Wenatchee, Washington, known also for its delicious apples, you know, those little round red things that you so enjoy biting into and munching and crunching. This is added proof that not all is doom and gloom.

Price appreciation as of December 31, 2007 (by percentage)

• Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight

• Of 291 metro areas, approximately 200 recorded year-over-year increases in prices

• Prices are still rising in many areas. Utah, Texas and Washington put multiple cities on the 20 best-performers list

• In eight states, house prices rose year over year: Utah, 9.3%; Wyoming, 8.3%; North Dakota, 7.8%; Montana, 6.9%; Texas, 6.2%; New Mexico, 5.4%; Washington, 5.4%; and Oklahoma, 5.1%

The survey also reveals a stubborn strength in most of the nation's local markets, a stability obscured by the national figures and one that is frequently overlooked in discussions of the dire shape of the housing market.

Despite the drama in the doom and gloom areas, prices in most of the rest of the country held up relatively well, losing less than 2% or even, in a few places, growing. The stability is found in the middle of the country, which never saw the stunning boom-year price increases that now are unraveling in former boom markets like Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada.