Portland home prices up, says report

Across the country, Americans saw home prices drop precipitously in the fourth quarter. That wasn't the case in Portland.

Portland was one of only three U.S. markets where home prices increased in the latest quarter, according to new data from Standard & Poor's. Only Charlotte, N.C., Portland and Seattle showed year-over-year increases in prices. Charlotte's growth was the biggest, at 2.3 percent, followed by Portland at 1.2 percent and Seattle at 0.5 percent.

South Florida home prices plunged. Home prices in the Miami area dropped 17.5 percent in the fourth quarter, the biggest decline in the country, according to Standard & Poor's.

Las Vegas and Phoenix were right behind, with a 15.3 percent year-over-year decline. Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Detroit and Washington, D.C., all posted declines in the double digits.

Nationwide, home prices fell 8.9 percent by Dec. 31, ending a full year of declining prices.

The S&P/Case-Shiller quarterly index tracks the prices of existing single-family homes nationwide compared with a year earlier.

"We reached a somber year end for the housing market in 2007," said economist Robert Shiller, a creator of the report, in a statement. "Home prices across the nation and in most metro areas are significantly lower than where they were a year ago. Wherever you look, things look bleak, with 17 of the 20 metro areas reporting annual declines and the remaining three reporting flat or moderate growth rates."

Portland Business Journal