The appreciation rate for all existing housing sold in the region was 2 percent last year. The rate is a compound average annual growth rate, calculated using the previous sale price and sale date and the 1999 price and date. By comparison, the appreciation rate for the country as a whole was 6.4 percent in 1999. Property values in many local areas fared as well as or better than the national rate. Sales and prices were higher in the suburbs than in the city.
Suburban prices benefit from sales of new homes, which tend to command higher prices than resales.
There is comparatively little residential construction in the city. During the doldrums of the early 1990s, Roach and other real estate brokers had estimated unsold houses at close to 40,000 units. His firm sells property in Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Delaware, and is considered a mirror of the market. But this is definitely a good market for sellers and not for buyers. The one thing on which brokers and agents tend to agree is that the market is not universally hot, which is reflected in the low increase in the median sale price.