I typically try to take a more local approach to real estate, but I’ve grown increasingly frustrated by the media’s decidedly negative slant on the state of the housing market. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to paint an over-optimistically rosy picture of all good news. I’d love to see continued 30% appreciation for several more years too! But when push comes to shove I’m pretty happy with 10% too!

Today the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), a government organization responsible for oversight of Fannie May & Freddie Mac, released statistics showing that Utah is still leading the nation in appreciation, posting an increase of 9.3% over last years fourth quarter. For those of you counting, that’s six straight quarters. But I’m betting you didn’t read that number.

In the same report OFHEO ranks “metropolitan statistical areas” or MSAs(fun term for major cities and some of their surrounding areas). Of the 291 MSAs ranked, 192 posted positive appreciation, 99 posted a decrease. Two-thirds are still going up? Did you hear that number?

Utah’s MSAs (Salt Lake City, Ogden-Clearfield, Logan, Provo-Orem and St. George) posted very respectable numbers with SLC (9.48%), Provo (10.46%), Logan (8.75%) and Ogden(10.8%) all ending up in the top ten appreciating markets.

Of the 20 most steeply declining MSAs all but two were in California or Florida. You may have heard those numbers, but only because it’s California and Florida.

What has changed in Park City, is that generally homes are on the market for longer, and buyer’s have the chance to be a little pickier than they used to be. In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be doing a full work up on the statistics for the Park City area. In the mean time, keep one thing in mind: take what the media says with a grain of salt; we are not California, Florida, or anywhere else. Come find out why we’re different.