The real estate market in the Beaver County region is far from stellar, but things here could be worse as the nation struggles with the worst housing slump since the Great Depression.

While home sales are down, prices are up in Beaver and western Allegheny counties for the first half of the year over the same period last year, according to Pittsburgh-based RealSTATs, which tracks the real estate market in metropolitan Pittsburgh. Lawrence County is an exception, with a drop of about 9 percent.

Foreclosure rates — bane of the national market — have gone down for Beaver and Lawrence and are up only slightly in western Allegheny over last year at this time.

“Clearly, the market is not as good as some of us would like it to be, but certainly it’s better than the rest of the country,” said Howard W. “Hoddy” Hanna III, chairman and chief executive officer of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services headquartered in Allegheny County and the fifth-largest real estate brokerage firm in the country.

According to RealSTATs, home sales in the region have declined since 2005, the decade’s peak year. Sales in Beaver County are down about 27 percent and in western Allegheny by about 17 percent since then. The company only began tracking numbers for Lawrence County in 2006.

Comparing the first six months of this year to last year, sales are down by about 23 percent in Beaver County, 14 percent in Lawrence and 13 percent in western Allegheny. RealSTATs Vice President Dan Murrer said the market is the slowest in nine years.

Rudy Zetz, owner of Oxford Realty in Center Township, said his sales are down about 10 percent so far this year, but business has recently started to pick up.

“Beaver County is unique to this degree: We don’t get hit as hard when it’s bad and we don’t get hit as hard when it’s good,” Zetz said. “Beaver County people are survivors, so we know how to hunker down, dig in and fight for the long run. I think you’re seeing people now saying that this is a good time to buy, and if people have some cash in their pocket, it is a good time to buy.”

The good news is that foreclosures, which have increased each year since 2000, are down about 16 percent over the first half of last year for Beaver County and about 2 percent for Lawrence. Western Allegheny foreclosures have increased about 1.5 percent.

And home prices are on the rise.

The median price of a home in Beaver County is up about 1 percent over last year. In western Allegheny, the price has increased about 12 percent. The price is down about 9 percent for Lawrence.

NASTY RATIO

A more troubling statistic, however, is the ratio of foreclosures to homes sold.

In 2000, lending agencies were foreclosing on about one home for every 14 sold in Beaver County and one for every 48 sold in western Allegheny. Those numbers are now one for about four in Beaver and one for nine in western Allegheny.

“I think that’s striking,” Murrer said. “That’s a big change.”

Beaver County’s Chief Assessor Mike Kohlman, also a licensed real estate agent, predicted that local market conditions will probably continue along the same track well into the future. But that isn’t exactly the worst thing, considering what’s happening across the country, he said.

NATIONAL PICTURE

Foreclosures across the nation increased by 53 percent last month over June 2007, according to RealtyTrac Inc., which offers online data on foreclosed properties. More than 252,000 properties are in default, or one in every 501 U.S. households.

USA Today reported last week that median home prices fell 6.8 percent nationwide over one year ago.

In Florida and California, states that have been hard hit by the financial crisis, foreclosures are up by 92 percent and 77 percent, respectively, over last June, RealtyTrac reported.

“I’d hate to be practicing in California or Florida right now,” Kohlman said.

Real estate agents are hopeful for a turnaround after the presidential election.

Hanna, whose sales are up about 2 percent over last year, said public perception is a big factor holding back the local market. He said people read and hear dire financial news from around the nation and relate that to this area where the situation is not as bad.

“I think we’re very well positioned in this marketplace,” he said. “We’re very optimistic that the market will continue over the next two or three years to ride the same path that we’ve been on, and then it will turn.”

TRACKING THE MARKET

RealSTATs, a Pittsburgh-based company that tracks local real estate data, offered the following historic January-through-June statistics, which show how the local market has performed over the past five years:

Median home price

COUNTY 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Beaver $83,500 $87,000 $92,000 $84,500 $85,200

W. Allegheny $138,000 $144,950 $156,000 $154,250 $172,500

*Lawrence — — $72,000 $77,000 $69,900

Number of residential sales

Beaver 1,121 1,167 1,109 1,113 856

W. Allegheny 781 708 677 678 587

Lawrence — — 587 511 441

Residential foreclosures

Beaver 163 179 191 260 219

W. Allegheny 44 45 49 65 64

Lawrence — — 67 89 87

*RealSTATs only began tracking Lawrence County in 2006.