That repeats the pattern begun in 2006, which also was a bit of a mixed bag for existing-home sales, according to Prudential Fox & Roach's HomExpert market report, based on MLS data. Last year, median prices rose in all eight counties, while sales declines were mainly in the single digits.
In 2006, Center City experienced a 24.3 percent increase in sales over 2005's levels, according to HomExpert, but a 3 percent drop in median price.
Over the long haul, however, that seems to mean very little. Data compiled for the Center City District by economist Kevin C. Gillen of the Wharton School showed that average sale prices for condos and houses have increased 8 percent a year since 1986, with appreciation rates ranging from 201.7 percent to 684.8 percent, depending on the neighborhood.
Though the numbers were tracked over two decades, much of Center City's housing-price appreciation has occurred in the last 10 years.
In the "condo world, prices rose 15 percent from 1980 to 1996, or 1 percent a year," said Allan Domb, president of Allan Domb Real Estate, who has developed several high-end condo buildings downtown. "From 1996 to 2005, there was a 300 percent increase."
Yet while sales were slower in the first quarter of 2007 than in the first three months of 2006, Trulia Inc., a California firm that tracks real estate trends, ranked the Philadelphia market third (after Manhattan and Chicago) in the number of properties for sale viewed on its Web site.
What are these surfers looking for? A 1,911-square-foot single-family with "3.2 beds, 2.1 baths," and a $262,900 median list price, said Trulia's Alissa Weinstein.
Larry Flick, Prudential Fox & Roach's chairman and CEO, called Southeastern Pennsylvania's 3.8 percent median-price increase in 2006 "more typical" than the double-digit rises of the previous two or three years.
