By Sharon Linstedt

NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER

A national study on home sale prices contains some good news for the Buffalo area — local single-family homes here are commanding bigger bucks, while most other regions are posting record price drops.

According to a National Association of Realtors survey, the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area was one of just 28 regions in the United States to chart a rise in home prices during the July-through-September period.

Local median home prices rose 3 percent to $114,200 from the third quarter of 2007.

"Everybody’s under the impression it’s doom and gloom and the sky is falling when it comes to the housing market, and that’s not the case here," said John Leonardi, executive vice president of the Buffalo Niagara Area Realtors Association.

Meanwhile, the national median home price fell a record 9 percent to $200,500. The realtors’ data base dates back to 1979. Sales of properties with mortgages in default accounted for at least a third of all transactions.

Across the Northeast, median prices were off 6.5 percent to $267,700.

BNAR’s snapshot of October home selling activity in Erie and Niagara Counties, released earlier this week, put the median home price at $113,000, 3 percent ahead of the October 2007 price.

While Buffalo-Niagara Falls region ranked among the top 10 markets for rise in home values, Elmira led the nation, posting a median price gain of 12.7 percent.

The steepest price declines were in California: the median home price in San Bernardino fell 39 percent to $227,200; in Sacramento, it fell 37 percent to $212,000, and in San Diego, 36 percent to $377,300.