Once again the news media is being Chicken Little claiming the sky is falling with regard to home sales and home prices. In today’s RTD and their reporter, Carol Hazard, (when will the RTD get a real website where you can link to their current issue?) reports "Home sales in VA. fall 27 percent." In the entire article, there is only one positive statement "The average price here was $264,147 in September, up from $240,701 a year ago." Yet this statement is immediately negated by "The median price, which is considered a better indicator, is unavailable for the Richmond area."

     Well, excuse me, Carol, while the RTD may think it is the state’s newspaper, what happens in Northern Virginia should stay in Northern Virginia. Locally, which is where I thought the RTD covered has seen a drop of approximately 3% on total units sold from January to September 2006 versus the same period in 2005. Considering 2005 was the best year ever for sales, this  decline is a drop in the bucket. Additionally, for the same period of 2006 versus 2005, the average sales price of $264,653 in 2006 as opposed to $234,453 represents a whopping 12.9 % percent increase in home value. While I’m no statistician,  I would venture a median value would also be higher for 2006, if available. 

    Currently, the greater Richmond market offers a better inventory selection than we have seen at any point in the last 5 years. Interest rates are lower than they were in mid summer. The only thing causing this slower market here is reporting on national and state trends, while ignoring and failing to report the positive news here.