At a sales meeting yesterday we spent alot of time talking about the decreasing value of homes, that seems to be what everbody wants to talk about today.  Our broker had a very list of home prices in the state by county.  In each county section there was a list of specific cities.  The list provided the 'median' home price for each city in an excel spreadsheet for the months of Sept. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and finally Oct. 2008.  There has been alot of talk lately about home prices dropping so significantly and not to downplay the situation, they have!  But when you look at each city's median price for each year, you'll be surprised to see that prices today are still higher than they were in 2002.  There are a few cities where the price is exactly the same or slightly lower than 2002 but in the whole state there are only a handful of these cities.  I know in Long Beach , an area I try to track, the median in Sept. 2002 was $250,000 and in October 2008 it was $350,000 that's still an increase of 40%.  Not a bad investment.  And yesterday I spoke to a lender who told me the 30 year fixed rate was now 5.125%!  That's such a good rate that I told my husband (for the first time) we should think about refinancing.  We can buy down the rate for 1% and get it below 5% - unheard of.  So, we're not at the high median that occurred in Oct. 2005 but what a great time to look at real estate.  We have both affordability and low interest rates and there's some really good inventory.  If you are interested in knowing what the median price in your area was for the period, give me a call or sent a quick email and I'll be happy to share the numbers with you.