While sales in Boone County aren't down, home owners are having a difficult time trying to sell their homes. The latest report casting doom on the national housing market, but the region isn't that bad off.

For more than a year, Jan Runde has been trying to sell her home in southwest Columbia. It has been on the market twice with two different realtors, and now Runde and her husband are trying to sell it themselves.

"It is definitely a buyer's market," Runde said.

Runde's experience is in line with a new report from the National Association of Realtors, which found nationwide sales of existing homes fell 0.3% in May, the slowest sales pace in four years. The report also found the median price of homes dropped for the tenth consecutive month to just under 224,000. That's down 2.1% from a year ago. Throughout Columbia, you'll find plenty of homes, such as this one, that are for sale. And some have even been on the market for more than a year. Regionally, though, the Columbia Board of Realtors says the local housing market remains strong.

"The last information I have is through first quarter 2007, and our appreciation was approximately two percent at that time. So that's not as great as it has been in past years two or three years ago, but it is still good considering the market conditions that we hear about nationwide," Brent Jones, Columbia Board of Realtors President said.

Runde just hopes getting creative and selling her home on her own will finally get the sale she needs. Here's a little bit of good news: the Columbia Board of Realtor statistics show rising home prices for the last six years.