BY SUSAN ERLER, Times of Northwest Indiana
serler@nwitimes.com

Northwest Indiana stood out among other metropolitan housing markets in a quarterly snapshot this month by the National Association of Realtors.

The report tracking performance in the nation's urban areas placed the Gary-Hammond area near the top in the Midwest for price increase during the combined months of April, May and June.

The median price of a home climbed 7.3 percent to $137,800 in the Gary-Hammond metro area, second only to the 9.2 percent increase to $151,400 in the Bismark, N.D. metropolitan area, the report said.

Indiana also fared well in the report, placing among only six states to show an increase in the pace of sales from a year ago. Indiana housing sales climbed 1.4 percent in the quarter to a total 148,800.

The sales pace in Northwest Indiana got back on track in July after sputtering a month earlier, according to information from the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors.

Buyers snapped up 754 new and existing homes in July in Lake and Porter counties combined, down slightly from a total 764 homes sold in July 2006.

June housing sales had topped out at 701, a 21 percent drop from the previous June.

Northwest Indiana home values climbed by 7.1 percent to a median selling price of $154,900 in July.

Nationwide, while home prices tended to improve in metropolitan areas, existing home sales during the second quarter were below a year ago in most states, the National Association of Realtors reported.

In the second quarter, 97 out of 149 metropolitan statistical areas show year-over-year increases in median existing single-family home prices.

Total existing-home sales nationwide, including single-family and condo, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.91 million units in the second quarter, down 10.8 percent from the second quarter of 2006.

The national median existing single-family home prices was $223,800 in the second quarter, down 1.5 percent from the second quarter of 2006.

The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
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