КИЕВ, 1 фев - SV Development.  At this time last year, Rob Neher was eager to buy a home for the first time. He’d looked at about 10 houses, but none had caught his fancy or fit his pocketbook.

That changed in July, when the single, 26-year-old bank branch manager closed on a 2,500 square-foot traditional house in Kingston shortly after seeing it.

“There were just tons of people” at an open house, he said, because the asking price of $99,000 seemed reasonable for a four-bedroom, two-bath home in a pleasant neighborhood. Not that it was perfect: “The house needed a lot of updating,” Neher said. But he thought it was a good deal, quickly made an offer and got it for a little less than the asking price.

Thus, Neher became one of a dwindling number of buyers last year in the region covered by the Greater Wilkes-Barre Association of Realtors, where sales fell by 16.4 percent compared to 2007. The pace of decline accelerated from 13 percent in 2007, when 2,184 residential deals were completed compared to 2,506 in 2006. Last year there were 1,826.

The figures are for single-family, residential properties only, in Luzerne County excluding the Hazleton area.

The National Association of Realtors said nationwide sales of existing homes fell 13.3 percent nationwide in 2008 and the median selling price dropped 9.3 percent, to $198,600.

Unlike in 2007, the Wilkes-Barre Realtors’ data shows average sale prices declining here last year, but by only 4.5 percent, to $131,785 from $138,040. Kevin Smith, president of the Century 21 Smith-Hourigan agency, thinks that’s because more modestly priced houses like Neher’s were sold.

“I think the higher dollar sales have been less,” Smith said. For example, the average selling price in the Back Mountain fell by 14 percent to $195,473. Transactions in the affluent area dropped by 27 percent.

The other side of the Wyoming Valley fared better; in Mountain Top sales fell by 15 percent but the average price inched up slightly to $241,757.

“If you’re looking for a good spot, try Greater Pittston,” Smith said. Transactions rose to 160 from 141 and the average selling price edged up 4.4 percent.

Prices rose nearly 3 percent in the Kingston/Forty Fort zone, but unit sales slipped 15 percent.

One of the bright spots two years ago dimmed in 2008. After posting increases in both deals and average price last year, transactions in the city of Wilkes-Barre plummeted by 30 percent and the average sale price fell 11 percent.

“That purely could have been that (2007) was a wonderfully good year there,” Smith speculated.

Neher, the banker, said he still sees signs of interest from his desk at the Luzerne Bank office on Public Square.

“There’s still a lot of commercial activity,” he said, with investors looking at rental and investment properties. “A lot from out of the area,” he said.

And money is available, although he said even the local bank, which did not get entangled in subprime and other risky lending, is being “a little bit more cautious” when scrutinizing loan applications.

According to the figures Smith provided, commercial, multi-family residential and land deals dropped by 23 percent in 2008.

While he hasn’t enjoyed watching the local real estate market shrivel, Smith said the current declines are payback for several years of exceptional growth.

“Five years ago I would have been happy with where I am today,” he said.

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