The other day I was reading the local newspaper, the Island Packet, and came across an article about home and villa sales for the month of July. The crux of the article was that July 2008 sales were up 17% over those of July 2007.

The article then went on to quote a number of Hilton Head real estate agents about the increase in sales. There were a number of agents that commented that we had seen the worst of the market and that things were now on the rebound. My first thought was that these agents are really out of touch with todays economic conditions, especially when everything points to this sales bump being an anomaly.

IMHO, one agent hit the nail on the head when he commented, "What it really means is we had a really bad July 2007." The agent who made that quote not only happens to be one of the leading agents in the area, but has also frequently gained national recognition for his annual sales volumes.

Whether it's the Hilton Head real estate market or any market across the country, you can't read too much into short term sales data. The national economy is still sluggish, and the volatility of the market over the past year makes it hard to compare numbers. At a minimum, it's safer to compare 3 month trends against 2007 and prior years to get an idea of how today's market is responding.