WATERLOO -- The Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro area has been recognized by the National Association of Realtors as one area bucking perceptions of a national bust in home sales.

Waterloo-Cedar Falls was cited along with Rochester, N.Y., Charleston W. Va. and Albuquerque N.M. as an area with rising home prices, NAR said. The organization projected " a continuation of soft market conditions" for the months ahead nationally.

The recognition is good news for local real estate agents who have maintained market conditions here are still good.

"With all the negative press, it sounds like the whole U.S. is in a real estate bust," said Bob Reisinger, an executive with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Board of Realtors. "They (NAR) have an ongoing campaign to tell the public it's not bad all over."

"They see Waterloo-Cedar Falls as performing," Reisinger said. "They noted we didn't see a big jump in sales prices, but we didn't have a bubble burst, either."

Median home sales prices have been increasing incrementally over the years, Reisinger said. He noted that, for January, the median sales price of a home has increased from about $81,000 in 2003 to about $100,000 now. Housing prices here have climbed steadily over two decades, since the farm crisis-induced recession of the late 1980s.

Cedar Falls real estate agent Dick Robert, who conducts an independent analysis of home sales, noted that while most of the rest of the nation showed declines of 7 to 10 percent or more in average sales price, Waterloo increased almost 6.7 percent to $105,359 In Cedar Falls, the average sale price increased 2.23 percent, to $195,080, nearly double that of Waterloo's average.

"Here in the Cedar Valley we are on solid economic footings and low interest rates are readily available to qualified buyers," Robert noted in his report.

Also, Reisinger noted the metro area recorded 140 home sales in January, well above the average of 123 over the past five years and the second-highest January over that same period.

Annual home sales have leveled off and dropped each the past two years, but those declines must be taken in perspective, since the metro area had been seeing 25- to 30-year records in home sales for six consecutive years prior to that.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls market also doesn't have a large backlog of homes, Reisinger said, another indication of an active market. Based on a recent market study he did, Reisinger said the metro area has bout a 5 1/2 month supply of homes listed for sale. That's how long it woudl take to ehaust the current inventory of homes given the current rate of sales and no additional listings. A six-month supply is about average, he said and a backlog of more that six months indicates a slow market.

Reisinger has projected 2008 sales will roughly equal 2007, when nearly 2,400 sales were recorded.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat. Kinney@wcfcourier.com