Jackson Free Press

While most of the country continues to see a drop in home prices in the wake of the housing and foreclosure crises, Jackson home prices will be going in the opposite direction. The average home across the nation will lose 11.3 percent of its value between now and June 30, 2010, predicts Fiserv, a Wisconsin-based financial information and analysis company. The company expects values in Jackson, however, to rise by 0.1 percent.

Jackson Association of Realtors Board President John Jenkins says he's seen prices in the tri-county area stabilize quickly after the nationwide housing bust that came to a head during the first half of 2008.

"This supports what we've been saying since March," Jenkins said. "Our prices never went up sky high (like many other markets), so they didn't fall very far." Jackson area homes never fell more than about 10 percent, he said, and continue to hold value well in the moderate price ranges. In Hinds County, the median home sale price has risen from $68,000 during the first quarter of 2009 to $95,000 for the third quarter, Jenkins said. In the Jackson market, the median home value stands at $140,000, according to Fiserv.

The Fiserv forecast, reported yesterday by CNNMoney.com, examined 381 real estate markets across the U.S., and predicted that home values in 342 of those markets—nearly 90 percent—would continue to drop for the next eight months. Florida is seeing some of the worst drops in value. Miami homes, for example, will lose nearly 30 percent of their values, after already falling by 48 percent in the past three years, Orlando will see another 27 percent collapse, and Naples is looking at a 26.8 percent drop.

Jackson stands among 10 percent of cities surveyed that will see home values flat or rising over the next eight months, and among the 33 cities expected to see an actual rise in value. At the top of the Fiserv predictions is Kennewick, Wash., which has seen home prices go up by 8.9 percent over the past three years and will continue to rise by 3.4 percent by June 2010. From the second quarter of 2008, home values in Jackson have risen 0.3 percent. By June 2011, the area's median home values will see a jump of 1.3 percent. Nationwide, Fiserv expects values to stabilize and rise 3.4 percent during the next 20 months.