The Buffalo-Niagara Falls housing market fared better than most across the U.S. in the fourth quarter, with median prices edging up 0.8 percent to $106,200.

In the final three months of 2007, the National Association of Realtors calculated median prices around Buffalo at $105,400.

The NAR reported Thursday that Buffalo was one of just 18 metropolitan areas nationwide to show an increase in the final three months of last year. Four other Upstate New York metros experienced declines.

Rochester median prices fell 6.9 percent, from $120,800 to $112,500. Syracuse suffered a 9.7 percent decline, from $126,300 to $114,100. Median housing costs in Binghamton were off 3.7 percent, dropping from $109,900 to to $105,800. Albany, with the priciest housing upstate, had a drop of 3.6 percent, from $200,300 to $193,100, in the year-over-year period.

The survey measured 153 metros; 134 of those areas had a price drop compared to the fourth quarter of 2007. The national median existing single-family-home price declined 12.4 percent, to $180,100, from the previous year.

Distressed sales - foreclosures and short sales - accounted for 45 percent of transactions in the fourth quarter.