According to the Daily News Record, "area home sales plunged 35.4 percent in September" --- wow! This might seem a bit alarming, but don't worry, it doesn't give a very accurate representation of the market. The main flaw here is relying on such a small set of data --- one month of sales.

Let's look at the numbers...

September 2006 - 100
September 2007 - 61
You'll notice that there was actually a 39% decline in sales!

However, when we look at October's sales, we quickly see why using only one month's data isn't overly helpful...

October 2006 - 82 sales
October 2007 - 97 sales
This shows an 18% increase in sales!

Perhaps next week we'll see an article about area home sales skyrocketing 18% in October??

The above statistics are reported by the Harrisonburg/Rockingham MLS.