Nationally home sales are down more than 9 percent and more houses continue to move onto the market. However Dothan seeing better numbers than on the national scale.

For instance, foreclosures are much lower here and the price sellers are getting for their homes is actually up from last year.

"We are getting the actual asking price for our homes instead of people feeling rushed to sell their homes,” says Steve Hodge with Dothan Association of Realtors.

That means more money in the pockets of home sellers. Dothan is still feeling the pinch of the tightening economy as fewer homes have been sold in 2009 than in 2008.

Hodge says, "The reason we aren't selling as many homes is we don't have the bankruptcies or the foreclosures, our foreclosures are lower than the rest of the nation."

Real estate experts say there's good reason for this stark difference between Dothan’s housing market and the rest of the nation.

"We don't have the large commercial industry or the vacation properties that most cities have," says Hodge.

While the real estate business in Dothan is not all positive there are aspects to indicate that we're doing much better than the national average.

"Homeowners are making more money, the realtors aren't making more, we are spending our ad dollars to inform the public to let them know Dothan can sustain the real estate business."

While the Dothan area isn't immune to the national mortgage crisis, it is doing considerable better than the rest of the country.

Florida has the second highest annual price depreciation for homes throughout the state at negative 25.5 percent.

Only Nevada has a higher percentage at more than negative 26 percent.