As a real estate professional, it seems almost all conversations I have eventually lead to real estate.  This has been happening even more since the extensive media coverage of the "mortgage crisis".    I am constantly asked "How's the real estate market?" My answer is always the same.  If the media would stop telling us the sky is falling, it would be awesome!   I recently pulled some statistics from the Northeast Board of Realtors web site.  These statistics will show you how strong the market could be in northeast South Dakota if people paid less attention to what everyone is saying and paid more attention to the statistics.   I compared January 1, 2008 through May 13, 2008 to the same time period in 2007.  Here is what I found:   Total active listings were up 7% The total number o... 05/13/2008