As I suspected earlier in the month when I reported Market Conditions for April 2007,  a slight slip in sales now has 2007 lagging record 2005 sales by approximate 1.5 % in total homes sold. 2007 still leads 2006 by 2.9 %. And for all you Chicken Littles who continue to listen to the media with their doom and gloom stories on the housing market, here’s a dose of reality. If you bought your home in 2005, it is now worth a whopping 23.5 % more. If you bought it in 2006 at height of the "supposed" pending crash, it is now worth 4.3 % more. Kinda of explains why your local muncipalties continue to raise your assessments, while doing the old sleight of hand by lowering the real estate tax rate. Compliments of Central Virginia Multiple Listing Services are the following numbers: 

    2007 2006 2005
Units Price Units Price Units Price
January 837 259,955 800 249,142 938 208,158
February 993 262,629 889 234,127 869 212,460
March 1,369 264,682 1,350 269,140 1,359 219,894
April 1,284 277,711 1,315 268,161 1,385 221,493
YTD/Avg Px 4,483 266,244 4,354 255,143 4,551 215,501

Yesterday, I was taking a continuing education requirement at the Board of Realtors and overheard numerous agents bemoaning the market. As I have stated many times our current market is reminiscent of the mid 90’s when we oldtimers thought we had a good market. Despite what you might hear, we have one now, too.