The number of homes sold in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area fell in 2009 for the fifth consecutive year, while last year also marked the fourth consecutive annual drop in the total dollars spent on residential real estate, according to RealSTATs, a local real estate information service.

Last year also was the first time since 1987 that the average price of a single-family home dropped in the region, falling from $150,558 in 2008 to $147,600 in 2009.

"We're in a contracting market and we have been for four years now," said Dan Murrer, vice president of RealSTATs. "If credit does not flow more freely in 2010, the market will continue to contract. Right now, it's so difficult to get a mortgage."

Overall, 24,293 homes changed hands in 2009, totaling $3.59 billion, in the five counties of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland. In 2008, there were 26,020 homes sold in the region for a total of $3.9 billion.

The residential home market has not suffered nearly as much as commercial real estate sales.

Last year's $695.3 million in commercial real estate sales marked the lowest commercial spending in this region in a decade and was a steep 63 percent drop from the 10-year peak of $1.89 billion set in 2007.

On a more positive note, the latest RealSTATs research confirms that the foreclosure wave was barely a ripple in Pittsburgh. While other parts of the nation continue to be crippled by the foreclosure crisis, fewer homes in this region were lost to foreclosure in 2009 than in each of the five prior years.

Last year, 3,948 individuals and families lost their homes to foreclosure, marking the third consecutive year of declining home foreclosures, falling from a peak of 5,228 in 2006.

Doug Oster writes a blog, "Growing With Doug," exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.