What Is Your Home Worth?

The ratings are based on price movements relative to a region's changes in income, interest rates, rents and population. They are not a predictor of how much prices might deflate. The Philadelphia region's rating simply means home prices here are 13.5 percent too high when the other factors are considered.

Though Gillen was unwilling to predict what prices would do down the road, he noted, "Even if we do experience a meaningful price deflation, that isn't necessarily an overall bad thing, because it increases housing affordability and accessibility for [the region's] population."

It's difficult to predict short-term fluctuations, Gillen said, "because the near term is as much dominated by buyer-seller psychology . . . as it is by fundamental forces."

"To paraphrase Dr. McCoy from Star Trek, 'I'm an economist, Jim, not a mind reader.' "

Methods of Analysis

The Inquirer's home-price analysis was based on more than 275,000 residential sales in 2005 and 2006. Sale information was obtained from the five Pennsylvania counties and the New Jersey Division of Taxation.

Only sales at fair-market prices of $10,000 or greater were included in the analysis of single-family homes, condominiums, townhouses and twins, or duplexes.

The median price is the amount at which half the sale prices were more and half were less. The percentage change reflects the difference in the median price from 2005 to 2006.

A town with fewer than 10 sales is marked "N.C." because the median and percentage change were not calculated. Towns with no sales are marked "N.S."

All numbers are rounded to the closest whole number.

Supplementary data for 2007 were provided by Hanley Wood Market Intelligence (new-home sales) and Re/Max and Prudential Fox & Roach's HomExpert Market Report (existing-home sales, based on Trend Multiple Listing Service figures).

To see interactive maps of home- price and sales data for the region, go to