This week while watching CNN I heard the confident newscaster exclaim, "New home sales prices surged-- they SURGED in April and existing home sales PLUNGED!" Being a little gullible and expecting the news to give me in-depth knowledge of a situation I was transfixed and intent on hearing the rest of the story. Well, that was it, that was her whole story. To be truthful, I am not exactly sure what is going on in our local real estate market right now, but it is neither surging nor plunging.

The median sale price for single family homes in Santa Monica from 2007 to date is $1,587,500 while the median sale price to date since 2006 is $1,534,000. What this means is that values are basically holding steady. Real estate values and desirability in our city is pretty varied. If in 2006 a few more people sold their houses in Sunset Park than North of Montana, the median sales price will be lower and vice-versa. The same holds true for days on market. An average condo off the 10 freeway at Pico is going to take longer to sell than your average condo North of Wilshire.

Single family home properties have been selling at an average of 96.43% of their original asking price. The average days on market year to date is 96 days. The dollar volume of sales has picked up a few points since last year, so people are still buying. It's taking a little longer to sell a home, but sellers are getting more or less what they are asking and the market is holding steady. Nothing exciting, no "surging" or "plunging."

In Brentwood, an area with predominately higher-end single family homes, the median sales price for 2007 is $2,367,500 and the median sales price since 2006 is $1,990,500. The average days on market year to date is 78 days. It's too early to tell if median sales prices will be significantly higher than last year, but they certainly aren't going down.

Condos used to be the segment of the market that were the first to get hammered by a slow-down. The median sales price for condos in Brentwood from 2007 to date is $674,000 and in Santa Monica it is $802,500. The median sales price since 2006 to date in Brentwood for condos is $690,000 and in Santa Monica it is $787,754. The average days on market in Brentwood is 94 and in Santa Monica it is 142. Whenever I see the days on market go past four months it's not good. However, since the first four months of this year, the average days on market for a condo in Santa Monica is just 62.

I know that none of this information is too exciting, but hopefully it is comforting to know that the sky isn't falling. If you are a homeowner you don't need to worry everyday that your equity is taking a nose dive. For buyers, this should help you to feel better about your inclination to find a place to settle into and call "home."

Simon Salloom is a local Santa Monica based REALTOR with Coldwell Banker. For questions and comments on this article go to: Santa Monica Real Estate and click on the link to the blog. All statistics taken from the BHGLAAR MLS.