In the trenches - what I see in my local market

All over the news it is doom and gloom about the housing market. The statistics are there indicating how bad things are. Somehow, I am seeing a slightly different story. I have seen a tremendous increase in activity in April. So much so that I actually have a buyer that is visiting from out of town. Most of the homes that I previewed this week are already under contract before they could get here to look at them. Some of these were homes that were on the market for almost a year at the same price. I too had a listing like this that just sold. What I have noticed is not a void of buyers; but a tremendous amount of overpriced listings. If you are selling a nice house that shows well in my area and you price it right, it WILL sell. Pricing it right is the key. Currently, in the neighborhoods that I work, it looks like the right price is usually approximately 7% below what the comps were selling for in 2006.