A few days ago there was a headline on CNNMoney.com that read “Home Prices Post Record Decline”. That decline, the article went on to say was – 6.7% decrease year-over-year for the month of October, comparing 2007 to 2006, according to the Standard & Poors / Case-Shiller study cited and based on a survey of 10 US Cities.   It is worth mentioning that several of those cities had experienced the steepest run-up in home prices during the boom years of 2004 and 2005.   But, when you add in numerous other US cities to the study’s results, that average changes to a year-over-year home price decline of -5%. The fact residential real estate prices have surged upward so strongly over the past 3 to 4 years, that a decline of 5% compared to last year is, quite simply, not such a big deal in the overall scheme of things.

As to Albuquerque, the study did not include Albuquerque or any New Mexico city in it’s aggregate of cities which created the statistic.   According to the OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight), their most recent study says that New Mexico had the fourth highest rate of appreciation in the nation between the third quarter of 2006 and the third quarter of 2007, coming in at +7.4%!

Being a little doubtful of even federal stats I checked on local new home pricing.   Here is what I discovered.   Albuquerque’s average new home base “asking” price as of Jan 1, 2008, SALESTRAQ, is $253,942, and the median new home base “asking” price is $228,950.   That’s a -1.2% decrease on the average year-over-year comparing December 2007 to December 2006 and a -1.3% decrease on the median.     Finally, as we move into another year, let’s learn a lesson from these headlines and remember that there is no such thing as “one size fits all” when it comes to real estate.   Perhaps a good motto for examining statistics should echo a familiar one, “LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION”.