Nation-wide it's not good news, existing-home sales were down nearly 13% in 2007 compared to a year earlier. Staying with the '07, '06 comparison it gets worse, sales were down 22% in the month of December. Why the percentage dip?

"When you talk about the national slow-down, you're talking about the eight major markets in the country," said President of Oswego County Board of Realtors, Tom Haggerty.

Haggerty says those major markets include New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

"As the market is negatively impacted by the economic conditions, those areas tend to magnify if you will, the negative impact of the economy," Haggerty says.

Syracuse is not feeling slow market blues. The National Realtor Association listed four cities as having a healthy or improving local housing market, Syracuse was one of them. Haggerty says Central New York is not seeing a significant increase but a gradual gain.

"We never had the huge increases that other parts of the country had as far as sales or housing prices go," said haggerty.

He says because of that, the area won't experience significant decreases. Haggerty also says there are plenty of buyers looking to own homes in Central New York.

"We're getting buyers because the home values that are available here," Haggerty said.

The NAR says the average home sale price in the United states for '07 was nearly $219,000. Haggerty says the median price in Oswego County, just over $100,000. He believes the housing market in Central New York will only improve because of the Destiny project.

Though home sales in 2007 were down nearly 13% from 2006, The National Realtor Association says it was still the fifth highest year on record.