The Real Estate Market: It Depends on What You're Talking About

A 3rd quarter report based on a federal survey of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages basically reflects several scenarios which have all been tackled in the media--the market is up, down, way down, or still there. Depending on which scenario you're looking for, you can find one (but various analyses of the West Coast bear this out repeatedly):

Without question the most impressively documented scenario is that many large metropolitan markets -- including some that experienced high gains during the boom years -- are still hanging in there and registering net appreciation, albeit at lower rates.

Examples include Fort Lauderdale (10.3 percent annualized quarterly gain), Naples, Fla. (10.8 percent), Los Angeles (7.4 percent), metropolitan Washington (3 percent), New York City and its northern New Jersey suburbs (3 percent), Seattle (14.8 percent), Miami-Miami Beach (14.7 percent), Chicago (5.2 percent), Orlando, Fla. (6.5 percent) and San Antonio (9.9 percent).

Click this article for a look at all scenarios.