Hot Housing Markets Start to Cool, While Others Being to Heat Up

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May 25, 2006

By Amy Hoak
From Marketwatch

If you hang your hat in Hanover, N.H., the value of your home is not growing as much as it once was. But own a place in "Steady Eddie" Overland Park, Kan., and its rate of appreciation is just as it always has been: consistent.

"It does not fluctuate tremendously," said Karen Bergin, a Coldwell Banker broker in the community not far from Kansas City, Mo. "It doesn't seem to change no matter what's going on in the economy." The area is used to its modest 4% to 6% appreciation rate over the past 12 to 18 months, she said.

Hanover, however, is bracing for appreciation rates of 5% to 7% this year, said Ned Redpath, an area broker. The rates are more realistic than last year's appreciation, which hovered around 12% to 15%, he said.

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