For those among you who have given up on the real estate market in Jefferson County, hold your horses!

If you look at the raw data for February 2008 (Figure 1), the big news is that the number of residential homes sold in February 2008 was higher than February 2007. There are also 38 homes that went under contract in February. These should close in March and April.

And how about our friends over in Berkeley County? Seventy-eight homes were sold in February 2008 in the county, a fall of 25 percent from February 2007—not as positive a picture as Jefferson County. The good news here was that 120 homes went under contract in February. This should boost the number of completed sales in March and April.

Also on the positive side, the Federal Reserve continues to slash interest rates—which will trickle down to people with variable- and adjustable-rate loans. It could also help with credit card payments—and seems finally to be working with banks to come up with a solution to the sub-prime mortgage mess.

Interestingly, only two homes priced over $400,000 sold in Jefferson County in February 2008, and only one of these sold for above $500,000. If your home is valued in this price range, you should seriously ask yourself how likely it is for you to sell it any time soon. You should also consider what you need to do to make your home more attractive to a prospective buyer.

Residential homes that sold in February 2008 did so at 83 percent of the list price. That is a huge slice off the asking price, the biggest savings for buyers in more than ten years. For example, a $300,000 home would sell for $249,000. That is a savings of $51,000. This may explain why there has been increased activity in the market. Bargain hunters and bottom feeders are realizing we are approaching the bottom of the curve.

On the negative side, Jefferson County houses that sold in February had been on the market an average of five months. This is a colossal increase, and one which I expect will rise as homes that have been on the market from 2007 begin to sell in spring.

These market trends are taking place in a wider environment that can best be described as depressed. The realtors are depressed. Lenders are depressed. Developers are certainly depressed. Foreclosures continue to rise.

Warren Buffet has declared we are in a recession. Jumbo Loans,those above $400,000, are now hard to come by, especially with good rates. This means that the top end of the market (jumbo) as well as the bottom end (sub-prime) are feeling a real squeeze.

On top of all this, the planning environment in the county has gone from bad to worse with the new zoning ordinance still unresolved and the current ordinance thrown in disarray after a judge declared it to be invalid.

In sum, the outlook continues to look fairly bleak, with some sunshine poking its way through the grey clouds of despair.