Starting in September 2007, the real estate market for the Richmond area began to significantly soften. For several months now, I have been extorting that our 30 % plus decline in sales year to date for ’08 versus ’07 would moderate once we got to the final 4 months of 2008. In October ’07, I bemoaned the almost 20 % drop in sales for September ’07 versus September ’06. Guess what? In October ’08, I get to bemoan the almost 17 % decline between September ’08 and September ’07. Here’s the comparison between September ’07 and September ’08. Oh by the way, we did dip below 30 % for the decline in sales year to date. We’re now at 29 %!!!!!!

September  2008 2007
Price Range  # of Sales % of Ttl Sales # of Sales % of Ttl Sales % Chg in #
0 – 99,999 31 4.75% 58 7.44% -46.50%
100,000 – 199,999 218 33.54% 226 29.01% -3.50%
200,000 – 299,999 220 33.85% 266 34.17% -22.30%
300,000 – 399,999 106 16.31% 119 15.28% -15.50%
400,000 – 499,999 36 5.54% 41 5.26% -2.10%
500,000 – 599,999 18 2.77% 25 3.21% -28.00%
600,000 – 699,999 10 1.54% 12 1.54% -24.00%
700,000 – 799,999 4 0.62% 14 1.79% 71.40%
800,000 – 899,999 3 0.46% 6 0.77% -50.00%
900,000 – 999,999 2 0.31% 2 0.25% n/c
1 Million plus 2 0.31% 10 1.28% -80.00%
Total Sales/Pct. 650 100.00% 779 100.00% -16.56%