Being the eternal optimist I am always looking to find that half full glass, preferably of wine.  Taking a quick look at the numbers for the first quarter it is easy to find that glass since sales in the first quarter in the Genoa area as previously defined doubled in 2008 compared to 2007.  However, to be fair, it was a small glass…very small glass.  There have only been 4 total sales this year compared to the 2 sales for the same period last year.   With so few sales analyzing stats can be less meaningful as one sale may distort the numbers.  That said, both the average and median prices did increase year over year.  The average price increased from $600,000 in 2007 to $634,500 in 2008.  Likewise, the median price increased from $600,000 to $644,500. 

As of April 1, there are 43 homes listed for sale for an average price of $997,704 and a median price of $859,900.  Taking into consideration the actual average and median prices for the first quarter and comparing them to the average and median listing prices I think we can conclude that reality on prices by sellers has not quite been realized.