For the last 9 months, the national media has been sensationally forcing the "Mortgage Meltdown" message into the national conscienceness, along with the apparent housing bubble burst. They talk about a ficticous "National Real Estate Market." This is simply not the truth. There is no such thing as a "National Real Estate Market". In fact, real estate is actually a "hyperlocal" market, meaning that from township to township and even neighborhood to neighborhood, each area is different, having it's own set of numbers.

In fact, Pennsylvania and specifically Chester County, is doing very well. Overall Pennsylvania saw a 4% - 8% increase in purchase prices and appraised value. 2007 was the 5th best year on record for existing home sales, and still within 2% of the all time high median for existing home price set in 2006. The media has painted housing as a bad investment, but there isn’t a single investment that doesn’t have a bad year. Accordingly,  homebuyers in for the long haul, have a very likely chance  of coming out ahead in building wealth. The average return on a 5% down payment over 10 years is usually 3-5 times greater than stock market returns.

Chester County has seen a steady year over year increase in average sales price for more than the last 5 years. In fact, since 2003, the average sales price was $290,000, and in 2007, it increased to an all time high of $378,000, according to the MLS market statistics.

Using websites like Zillow.com and trulia.com give many people false impressions. These sites pull info from the tax records, and apply specific algorithms (math formulas) which then results a value for the home. Many times these figures are wildly inaccurate. On the other hand, Realtors are able to pull real time numbers from the Multiple Listing System, tracking the exact activity, finding out what the actual market value of your home is.

Now, The Cindy Dickerman Team offers you the ability to receive bi-weekly updates with all the market stats, personalized for your specific area and home. It shows you every listing, every sale, the average asking price for the last 3 - 6 months, time on the market, and much much more. You can get your free report today by going to CindyDickerman.com/MarketSnapshot