We've experienced several years of significant declines in sales activity in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. 

• There were 14% fewer home sales in 2006 as compared to 2005.
• There were 13% fewer home sales in 2007 as compared to 2006. 
  
• There were 25% fewer home sales in 2008 as compared to 2007. 
  
• Thus far (Jan-Apr) there have been 28% fewer home sales in 2009 as compared to 2008.

My hope for this year, however, has been that we'll be able to at least have as many home sales as there were last year (2008).  As mentioned above, we're not doing so well at meeting that target --- being 28% below last year so far.

However, we (Coldwell Banker Funkhouser Realtors) continue to see a strong increase in the number of properties being viewed on our collection of (65) web sites.  This is often a leading indicator of forthcoming sales activity.



So, I'll remain optimistic for the last 10 days of this month and see where we end up.  So far this month there have been 45 home sales in our market, and last year during the same time period there were 46 home sales.  Perhaps we'll catch up with last year this month, and then stay ahead or surge ahead!?