38% of Housing Market Highly Overvalued?

Sixty-five metropolitan areas representing 38% of the U.S. housing market are "extremely overvalued" and at risk for price declines, according to an analysis by National City Corp., Cleveland, and Global Insight Inc., Waltham, Mass.The quarterly Housing Valuation Analysis, which looked at the top 299 U.S. real estate markets, found that the number of overvalued markets actually declined from 67 in the second quarter, although the market percentage rose. "While the incidence of overvaluation clearly increased, we are beginning to see more diversity among metro areas," said National City chief economist Richard DeKaser. "Not all are moving toward loftier valuations, as was the case during the 2003-2004 period. Whether the most extremely overvalued markets will have an orderly price correction to more normal, historic levels remains to be seen." More information on the analysis can be found online at http://www.globalinsight.com/housingindex or http://www.nationalcity.com/economics.