WATERLOO - Home sales were down slightly for a third-straight quarter in the Cedar Valley, but a mild October may give the market a booster shot.

Total residential sales for Realtor-listed homes in the Cedar Valley totaled 649 in the third quarter, down from 713 in 2006, according to numbers provided by Bob Reisinger, executive vice president of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Board of Realtors. However, October sales for 2007 were up to 15.5 percent from 2006, from 180 to 208 homes sold.

Through the first ten months of 2007, home sales totaled 2,042 in the Cedar Valley. That figure projects to 2,377 sales by the end of the year, based on a 3-year average of total home sales through ten months. That would be the lowest total since 2003, but still among the five highest totals since 1961.

"We're about on pace to match our 2004 numbers," said Reisinger. "All the good signs are there with our economy and the rates the way they are."

Reisinger reiterated the board's position that the national housing slump has not hit the Cedar Valley. "We didn't get into all those exotic mortgages - the subprime and all that," he said.

The median sale price in the third quarter of 2007 was down slightly from 2006, dropping from $116,000 to $115,000. But again the October numbers showed promise, as the median price rose from $106,000 in 2006 to $111,000 in 2007.

Total home sales dropped in the 2006 calendar year for the first time since 1999, but the median sale price continued to rise. Median sale price has climbed every year since the Board of Realtors started tracking it in 1990.

"Prices are still slowly moving up," said Reisinger. "They aren't jumping, but moving up 4, 5, 6 percent, the way they should."

The median price in first quarter of 2007 was down $1,300 from 2006, but in the second quarter of 2007 it was up $5,000. The upturn in October prices is a good sign median prices for 2007 as a whole will beat the previous year for the 17th consecutive year.

Contact Drew Andersen at (319) 291-1418 or drew.andersen@wcfcourier.com.