the rent is too damn high and so are house prices

Tom De Poto/The Star-Ledger


Home prices dropped in three out of four New Jersey metro areas tracked by the National Association of Realtors at the end of the fourth quarter.

Data compiled by the NAR showed median home prices for a single-family home in the Newark-Union area fell 1.1 percent from the previous year to $357,000. They dropped more dramatically in the Trenton-Ewing (down 5.7 percent to $232,900) and Atlantic City (down 4.7 percent to $217,200) areas.

Only the Edison region showed an increase, up 6.1 percent to $308,400.

The median price is where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

Two other areas monitored by the NAR that cross state lines showed gains. The metropolitan region that includes Northern New Jersey, New York City and White Plains, N.Y., showed a 4.6 percent increase to $462,000. In Western New Jersey, the region that includes Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton jumped 8.7 percent to $199,700.

NAR found median prices increased in 119 of 164 statistical markets it studies,
The national median existing single-family home price was $196,900 in the fourth quarter, up 10.1 percent from $178,900 in the fourth quarter of 2012. In the third quarter the median price rose 12.5 percent from a year earlier.

The five most expensive housing markets in the fourth quarter were the San Jose, Calif., metro area, where the median existing single-family price was $775,000; San Francisco, $682,400; Honolulu, $670,800; Anaheim-Santa Ana, Calif., $666,300; and San Diego, where the median price was $476,800.

The five lowest-cost metro areas were Toledo, Ohio, with a median single-family price of $80,500; Rockford, Ill., $81,400; Cumberland, Md., at $89,500; Elmira, N.Y., $99,500; and South Bend, Ind., with a median price of $101,100.