The Best And Worst Housing Markets In America : With the 2006 annual sales and price indexes out in the market, it is now possible to decide the best and worst performers in the real estate market for the last one year. According to the report released by National Association of Realtors, the annual median home prices have increased by 14.6 percent in Seattle, 14.3 percent in El Paso, and 12.3 percent in Portland. Apart from these, the other markets that have experienced a growth from the previous year include Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Austin, Jacksonville and Charlotte.

But for the other markets, the news is bad. Quite a number of major markets that were predicted to do good business have fared badly. Comparing the growth rate of metropolitan areas, New York’s finance department has reported that the metro area has recorded a substantial increase in the median home price. But, the prices have dropped at an average of 1.2 percent in the remaining parts of the US.

According to Kristine Losh, a broker with Ewing and Clark, the prices would still escalate from the current value. She thinks that cities like Seattle due to geographical constraints, have limited land to offer and for this reason the potential buyers would be trying to buy it with an increased price.

Relative increase in the job opportunities and migration has been the main reason for the upward trend of the market in the west. The worst affected area during the slump is Northeast that has recorded 4.8 percent drop in prices.