34 % Drop. How’s that number for you? Through the first 4 months of ‘08, we are trailing the ‘07 sales number by over 1,300 units. If this rate was applied to the entire year, than the Richmond area would experience a sold unit drop in single family homes in excess of 4,600 homes. Kinda explains why our inventory levels are so high, doesn’t it? For little more perspective, in ‘07 approximately 14,000 single family homes sold in the area. This ‘07 number was down 11 % from the 2006 number. Depressing, huh? But before I start passing the collection plate for myself, I will say that this decline will moderate as we progress through the year. The final 5 months of 2007 were pretty dismal and are comparable with the current sales numbers we are experiencing. So here’s my projection; I think we’ll finish ‘08 with about a 3,000 unit drop in homes sold. Bad, but certainly not the end of the world. My thought is sometime around the election, we’ll bottom and the market will start to improve. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue through the year.

Here’s my data through April:

April 2008 YTD 2008 2007
Price Range  # of Sales % of Ttl Sales # of Sales % of Ttl Sales
0 - 99,999 124 4.73% 226 5.69%
100,000 - 199,999 793 30.22% 1239 31.19%
200,000 - 299,999 924 35.21% 1304 32.82%
300,000 - 399,999 381 14.52% 607 15.28%
400,000 - 499,999 179 6.82% 294 7.40%
500,000 - 599,999 97 3.70% 120 3.02%
600,000 - 699,999 51 1.94% 71 1.79%
700,000 - 799,999 24 0.91% 38 0.96%
800,000 - 899,999 20 0.76% 24 0.60%
900,000 - 999,999 4 0.15% 23 0.58%
1 Million plus 27 1.03% 27 0.68%
Total Sales/Pct. 2624 100.00% 3973 100.00%