MERRILLVILLE | A recent Associated Press article reported that home prices posted a record 15.3 percent drop. However, if the article was written on Northwest Indiana's housing market, the story would have been much different, a local Realtors group contends.

Locally, the housing market remains stable, with some areas experiencing slight increases in home prices from years past, according to the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors. Despite what the national housing market figures would suggest, Northwest Indiana has not experienced the drastic decrease in home prices that many other parts of the country have experienced.

According to statistics from the association's Multiple Listing Service, the median selling price of a single-family residential home in Northwest Indiana (Lake, Porter, Jasper, Newton and LaPorte counties) increased 4.2 percent from 2006 to 2007. Additionally, when comparing home selling prices from January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007 to home selling prices from January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008, the median selling price has increased 0.8 percent.

"All real estate is local and what's happening nationally isn't necessarily happening in Northwest Indiana," said association CEO Peter Novak. "The housing market in Northwest Indiana is, and continues to be, affordable and stable for those looking to purchase or sell a home."

He added much of the area's stability can be attributed to the fact local home prices did not increase in the dramatic fashion as those in some parts of the country. Northwest Indiana's modest growth during the real estate boom protected local property owners from the sharp declines some areas are struggling with.

"Some markets saw their home prices increase at unprecedented rates over the past eight or 10 years. Since the real estate market flattened out, those areas have not been able to sustain home prices at those levels and the prices have been falling," Novak said. "In Northwest Indiana, we aren't experiencing that. The real estate 'crisis,' with 10 and 15 percent decreases in property values that everyone is talking about, isn't happening here because our home prices never became overly inflated."