Home prices in the Dallas area were up about 5 percent at midyear compared with second quarter 2006 in the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s quarterly report released Thursday.

The federal report was the second this week to show Dallas home prices still rising.

Dallas’ increase compares with a 3.2 percent one-year nationwide gain for the same period - the lowest such increase since in 10 years.

U.S. home prices were up only 0.1 percent from the first quarter.

“House prices were basically flat in the second quarter despite tightening credit policies, rising foreclosure rates, and weakening buyer sentiment,” Federal Housing Office Director James Lockhart said in a statement.

Dallas is one of the few cities in the nation where home prices are still rising slightly, according to a national housing survey released Tuesday.

While U.S. home prices fell 3.2 percent in the second quarter, Standard & Poor’s quarterly housing index reports that the Dallas metropolitan area was one of only five markets in the country with price gains.

Of the 20 cities it surveys, only Dallas, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., had annual gains in home prices in the second quarter.

But it’s hard to say whether the 1.6 percent gain in Dallas home prices is sustainable, industry experts say.

Dr. David Westerberg had the chance to buy into a cosmetic dentistry practice in Palm Desert but found that the credit crunch had chipped away his ability to find money through conventional small-business loans or by tapping his home equity.

Although his house value had gone up, the appraiser was having a tough time finding comparable houses that also had become more valuable.
“The market has changed,” said Westerberg, who already burnishes smiles at a San Bernardino practice. “I found that [bankers] weren’t as willing to lend and it had become much more stringent.”

Long-term mortgage rates slid further this week on cooler July home sales and waning consumer confidence, Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com reported today.

In Freddie Mac’s survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to an average 6.45 percent from last week’s 6.52 percent, and the 15-year fixed was down to 6.12 percent from 6.18 percent. Points, which are fees lenders charge for loan processing expressed as a percent of the loan, averaged 0.5 on the 30- and 15-year loans.

The story was a bit different for adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), however, on which rates this week rose by about “a quarter of a percent,” Freddie Mac Vice President and Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said in a statement.

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. — Two years after plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter surfaced in Plattsmouth, a Cass County judge will resolve a controversial land dispute.

The trial before District Judge Randall Rehmeier is expected to draw outside interest because of its potential impact on economic development near Plattsmouth.

The lawsuit pits two of the town’s most prominent families against each other.

Barb and Boyd Linder, owners of Linder Tire and Auto, have accused developers of violating a set of subdivision covenants drawn up in 2002.

The defendants are members of the Schneider family, fourth-generation owners of the Plattsmouth State Bank.