The bad news about Pittsburgh area real estate is that home sales are down for the month of September; but the good news is that property values here are still appreciating at a steady pace.

"The house you live in is worth 4 percent more this year," said Daniel A. Murrer, vice president of RealSTATS, a local real estate information company.

Recorded home sales in the metropolitan Pittsburgh area slid 14.5 percent for the month of September compared with home sales in September 2006.

But that double digit drop could be misleading. There were 20 business days in September 2006 and only 19 business days this year.

"We've come to the realization that one business day can make a difference," Mr. Murrer said. "There may be a need to seasonally adjust the September numbers. More realistically, we're down about 7 percent."

There were 1,472 home sales in Allegheny County last month with the average price being $144,267 and the highest home price recorded at $1.2 million.

Beaver County had 170 home sales in September; Butler County posted 203; Washington County had 238; and there were 387 home sales in Westmoreland County last month.

Recent turbulence in the financial markets and tighter lending conditions nationwide have apparently not shown as much trickle-down effect in Pittsburgh housing.

Looking at the quarterly real estate picture in Pittsburgh, the number of homes sold is down about 6 percent while actual sales dollars are down about 3 percent from the same quarter last year.

For the month of September, however, money spent on residential property dropped 12 percent from $409 million last year to $360.7 million this year.

Median home prices rose 4.2 percent from $120,000 in the third quarter of 2006 to $125,000 this year.

"When you look at Pittsburgh compared to the country, we are financially conservative," Mr. Murrer said. "So we don't have the wide swings in prices and foreclosures. In Pittsburgh it's slow and steady."