The housing slump is finally starting to hit the 80 great cities in our survey. Only 28 cities are showing home price gains over 2007. Leading the pack are Hot Springs Village, Newport, Chapel Hill and Ocean City with increases of over 20% from '07. On the other hand, "resort" cities Park City, Sedona and Gulf Shores show the worst declines of over 29%. Three months of data is a small sample, particularly for the smaller cities, so we should reserve judgement on the state of the local housing markets until more data is in.
Several of the cities with large gains so far in '08 had home price peaks in 2005 or 2006, and have been on the rise ever since. These include Kailua, Ocean City and Athens. Cities with the largest '08 declines were among the last to be affected by the housing slump with home price peaks in 2007.
State-wise, cities in Arkansas and South Carolina have yet to see a home price peak. Most Texas cities have yet to peak with Galveston the exception peaking in '07. Massachusetts cities peaked in '05! Most cities in California, Colorado and Nevada peaked in '06. Utah peaked in '07. Arizona and Florida cities are all over the board.
Check prices of new homes and resales back to 2001 for our great retirement cities, plus other key city data at GreatPlacesToRetire.com.
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