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Worry over the crumbling real estate market is being countered by some real estate agents who say that now is a good time to buy, but other sellers aren't quite as bullish.

The number of home sales by Realtors in Essex County took a sharp drop in July from the previous month, from 34 houses sold in June to only 12 in July, according to NYSAR's most recent report. By this time in 2006, Realtors had sold 807 homes in Essex County; this year they had sold 631 through July.

The median home sale price in Essex County in July had declined 47 percent since June, falling from $221,914 to $117,500. In July 2006, the median sale price was $185,000. In July 2007 it was $150,000 - 22 percent more than this July.

Statewide, NYSAR said the median home sale price has fallen from $243,000 in the second quarter of 2006 to $212,250 in 2008.

"It remains a good buyer's market," NYSAR spokesman Salvidore Prividera Jr. said. "We're past many of the financial difficulties in the credit market, and there are more options and bargains to be had." He said it's also not the worst time to list a home.

"Typical homeowners have been in a home for seven years," he said. "The median sales price statewide in 2001 was $127,000. In July of 2008, it was $229,000."

Laura Burns, the executive officer for Northern Adirondack Board of Realtors, said market performance varies by region.

"Days on market are high because prices aren't realistic," Burns said. "Recently we are noticing more price changes. Mortgage guys have also tightened up."

Burns said median sale prices have remained higher for longer in Essex County, in part due to the euphoria of the second-home market.

In Franklin County, she said the median sale price actually rose and that prices remain stable, although numbers were not available. She also said foreclosure rates are lower in the North Country and that none of NABOR's 166 Realtors have closed due to lack of business.

"They don't have the booms, and they don't have the busts," she said. "But sales are still low."

For instance, she said, the median home price in Franklin County is only $80,000. But Burns said that makes it a good place for first-time home buyers who can take advantage of the Federal Housing Stimulus Package.

"What the economic stimulus is really having an effect on is first-time home buyers," Burns said. "So I'm suspecting that people are getting off the fence and hitting the market. Federal assistance has more of an effect on less affluent communities."

Burns said mortgage rates are still good and prices have stabilized.

"People who are local are buying a house to live in it, and they are still building long-term equity," she said. "List prices are going to creep up next year."

Others take a more sober view of the market.

"We're essentially awash in unsold inventory," Saranac Lake real estate broker Rob Grant said. "People don't want to hear that, but if someone tells you otherwise, they are in denial."

Grant said that economic conditions in the Adirondacks make families particularly vulnerable, and while many are moving out, fewer are moving in.

"In our part of the woods, in the Adirondacks, we have seen a huge increase in the number of homes for sale," Grant said. "Right away, what that means is you've got that many more homes competing for fewer buyers."

He said several compounding factors in the Adirondacks mean a difficult market for most homes and that only the very high-end property sales remain strong.

"We just completed a $3 million sale on the west shore of Lake Placid. So the market is fragmented," he said. "Vacation homes and high end are doing well, but the rest is getting pounded."

"We've got a very powerful transformation happening where we have a credit crisis, we've got a very bad recession and extremely high property taxes, and that creates a perfect storm."

Grant said these economic problems will become especially acute this winter.

"We're ground zero in terms of the energy crisis," he said. "I see this winter as the critical tipping point for a lot of people, and I think we're going to see a lot of collateral damage in the market."