AJ TEAM REAL ESTATE

With sharp drops in sales of existing and new homes plastered over the front pages and leading the nightly newscasts, it's no wonder the real estate doomsayers on Wall Street have been working overtime. And there's no minimizing the bad numbers we've been seeing: A surprising 27 percent decline in resales from June to July, and a 12 percent drop in sales of newly-built houses during the same period.

Yes, most economists predicted that the months following the tax credits' expiration would be negative, so we were forewarned.

But let's not get caught in a Chicken Little economic trap here. Hidden among the recent negative numbers have been some positives that aren't getting much attention.

Start with home values. If families are going to buy houses, they've got to have confidence that the property will at least maintain market value and ideally gain a little over time.