I got my hands on the Pierce County breakdown of April median prices this afternoon, courtesy of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, for a closer look at how areas from Orting to Central Tacoma and Lakewood are performing.

Countywide, the median sale price grew year-over-year by 3.2 percent – good considering some parts of the country are struggling to stay flat. But not great when compared to the much higher appreciation seen year-over-year in King, Snohomish, Kitsap and Thurston counties.

The MLS breaks Pierce County into 104 areas and then puts those into 17 groups. So the most detailed stats are for those 17 groupings, which translates to one stat for North Tacoma but also one stat for areas as diverse as Tillicum, DuPont, Steilacoom and Ketron Island.

Six saw monthly median prices decline compared to the previous April, but when looking at prices for the first four months of the year, the same six areas all were up.

They were (April 2007/April 2006):
Lake Tapps/Orting: $300,000/$303,452
Anderson Island (just one home sold last month): $180,250/$199,750
North Tacoma: $289,950/$295,000
Lakewood: $240,000/$249,999
Parkland: $219,725/$224,675
Browns Point: $310,000/$324,975

For the county, closed sales in April were down 20.4 percent. But there were areas that saw increased sales: Central Tacoma, University Place, Southeast Tacoma and, interestingly, Lakewood (considering its monthly decrease in median sale price).

The biggest drops in sales activity came out of Puyallup (down 49 percent) and the Lake Tapps/Orting area (down 61.2 percent).

Stay tuned for May numbers, expected the first full week of June.