2007 Home Prices for Top Retirement Cities in U.S.

Three months of 2007 home price data are now in. The housing slump is starting to hit even our elite collection of retirement towns and cities. RetireHomeSmart.com tracks home prices and other key data for 70 top U.S. cities. The average home sales price in 2007 is down in 30 cities when compared to last year's numbers.

California and Florida, long the home of rising prices, are seeing pullbacks in Monterey (-21%), San Luis Obispo (-10%), South Lake Tahoe (-8%), Palm Springs (-1%), Melbourne (-2%) and Gainesville (-1%). Reno, Nevada is the biggest loser with the average home sales price down 33% so far this year from 2006.

Even with this slow down among the RetireHomeSmart.com 70, the majority of our cities continue to show growth in average home sales price. The biggest gainers are Aspen (+49%), Gatlinburg (+38%), Lake Placid (+37%) and Gulf Shores (+36%). These four are small towns and each recorded less than 40 sales in Jan-Mar of 2007. As sales mount for the year, the growth averages may fall in line with more reasonable growth patterns.

Larger cities with positive growth included Hilton Head (+20%), Southampton (+16%) and Santa Fe (+10%).

Average home sales prices are updated monthly at RetireHomeSmart.com. You can check sales prices and other important demographic, environmental, crime and financial data for 70 of the best retirement and vacation cities in the U.S.