Early data gathered by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission show housing sales dropped 67 percent between 2008 and 2012, among other findings.
Housing sales in the Lehigh Valley dropped 52.6 percent between 2008 and 2012, and the median sales price of newly constructed homes dropped 21.3 percent.
The number of new houses being built dropped even sharper, falling from 1,291 homes in 2008 to just 172 in 2009, and 180 in 2012.
Those are some of the early findings of a housing plan being compiled by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, which will seek input from a series of community meetings over the next four weeks.
While they show how hard the region was hit by the housing market downturn, LVPC Executive Director Becky Bradley said the early data also indicate the overall Lehigh Valley housing market is more stable than one might think.
She noted the region has seen a 30 percent population increase over the past three decades and that people are still moving here and staying, which creates a demand for more housing.
"People living in the Lehigh Valley tend to stay in the Lehigh Valley, which is really good," Bradley said. "We aren't seeing any mass exoduses like other places are. People want to stay here, and that's only going to help the market as we move forward."
The planning commission reviewed every housing sale in the Lehigh Valley between 2008 and 2013 for the data they have so far, marking the first time they have gathered information in this way.
A total of 6,934 Lehigh Valley housing sales in 2008 dropped to a low of 3,693 in 2011 before climbing slightly to 4,543 in 2012, according to the commission.
The median sales price for a newly built house in 2008 was $321,537. That amount was $264,950 in 2012, the lowest of the five years surveyed.
The drop was less severe for overall Lehigh Valley housing sales, rather than just new construction, falling from $190,000 in 2008 to $161,250 in 2012.
It fell from $215,000 to $187,500 over that time in Lehigh County specifically, and from $200,000 to $173,000 in Northampton County, according to the commission.
However, many argue housing prices were overinflated in 2008, so Bradley warns the sharp decline could appear misleading.
"I think everybody knows the market has softened, but I'm not sure to what extent that high inflation affected that," she said. "So I don't want people to be overly alarmed by that information. But the numbers don't lie either."
The Lehigh Valley Housing Plan will not be fully completed until the summer and will delve even further, looking into the connection between household income and access to housing, as well as a breakdown by school district.Bradley hopes the upcoming community meetings -- the first of which will be Wednesday -- will help the commission better understand qualitative information that goes beyond the quantitative data they have already gathered.
"We're looking for things like what do people need, what do they want, what kind of housing is available to them," she said. "Is it single-family detached homes or town houses? Do they need more rentals, and if so, at what price-point? All kinds of things that you don't see in just the numbers."
Out of the 6,934 Lehigh Valley housing sales in 2008, 4,173 were in Lehigh County and 2,761 were in Northampton. Of the 4,543 sales in 2012, 2,498 were in Lehigh and 2,045 were in Northampton.
While the commission is still studying why Northampton County saw less turnover in the housing market, Bradley said the fact that Lehigh County had more new construction is one of the factors.
She also noted Northampton County residents tends to stay in their houses longer than those who live in Lehigh County.
Bradley said the data do not include housing flips or dollar deed transfers like those between family members, both of which can artificially inflate or deflate the market.
Contact Allentown reporter Colin McEvoy at 484-894-2549 or cmcevoy@express-times.com.
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