PinnacleSports.com Offers Home Prices Betting Options

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Low mortgage rates and favorable market conditions have attracted buyers at staggering rates, pushing housing prices to all-time highs in the past year. Although the U.S. housing market continued its unprecedented growth in the second quarter, several economists, including Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, believe prices will peak and are predicting a real estate slowdown. With the housing boom on the minds of both buyers and sellers, PinnacleSports.com today released betting options on home prices in some of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States.

The first company in the world to offer betting on the average price of gasoline, PinnacleSports.com has expanded wagering into another economic indicator by offering betting options on third quarter median home prices in numerous metropolitan areas, as reported by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on November 15. The oddsmakers at PinnacleSports.com are at odds with economists, predicting that third quarter prices in numerous metro areas will again show significant growth.

In the second quarter, NAR reported a median home price in the Phoenix market of $243,000, an increase of 47 percent over the same period in 2004. PinnacleSports.com has set an over/under line for the median price in Phoenix of $263,000 in the third quarter, an 8 percent jump in the nation's fastest growing market. The betting line for the nation's largest city, New York, has been set at $528,000 for the third quarter, a 4.2 percent increase from the last NAR report. Meanwhile PinnacleSports.com has set the over/under line on the average cost of a home in Boston at $423,000, whilst those looking to buy or sell in Los Angeles can expect a median price of $480,000, according to PinnacleSports.com. The oddsmakers at PinnacleSports.com also anticipate the price in San Francisco to approach $747,000. Median home prices in other metro areas that bettors can wager include: Chicago ($268,000); Washington DC ($454,000); Las Vegas ($307,000); Seattle ($324,000); San Diego ($619,000) and Philadelphia ($216,000).

"House prices in America continue to be driven by non-economic determinants and not by fundamental factors in the housing market," said Simon Noble of PinnacleSports.com. "With homebuyers prepared to buy as long as they believe prices will continue to rise, we're confident that our unique betting markets, which draw interest directly from the public, will once again be an accurate predictor of public opinion, as was the case when we offered wagering on the cost of gasoline."

PinnacleSports.com has opened betting lines on the median home prices for the third quarter of the year in more than 40 markets where bettors can wager on the over/under at -105 (i.e., win $1 for every $1.05 bet).