North Dakota prices were 2.8 percent higher in the spring than they were a year earlier, according to the most recent figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Prices rose fractionally in three other states: Oklahoma, South Dakota and Maine.

This is according to the FHFA's index tracking same-home sales over time.

Maryland prices, by contrast, fell just under 8 percent over the same period. (Thus endeth the break.) Nevada, the state with the fastest-falling prices, registered a 28 percent drop.

At this point, you might be thinking: North Dakota?! But it makes sense.

That state's unemployment rate is best in the nation -- a low 4.3 percent at a time when U.S. joblessness is flirting with 10 percent. And its home-price increase during the housing-frenzy days wasn't nearly as tremendous as in Maryland, Nevada and many other states.

In spring 2005, when year-over-year prices increased more than 20 percent in Maryland and Nevada, North Dakota's gain was a comparatively sedate 7.7 percent.

I wonder if North Dakota residents are feeling smug right now.