Being an owner/broker of a small real estate company in a rural area of Virginia, I hear people complaining all the time about the lost of value in their property.  I took it upon myself to research and see how much of a lost (percentage) this area has seen over the past couple of years.  I was surprised to see that today's sales volume is similar to that of 1999 and 2000.  Looking even closer at the numbers, I noticed that this area during the 1900's appeared to have an inflation rate of 3 to 5 percent depending on your location.  I noticed that during the 2003 through 2005 the inflation rate ranged from eight percent to as high as twenty-five percent.  So, if you purchased your home at the very top of the market in 2004/2005 maybe you have seen some deflation, but the majority of the properties in this area have not.  The problem sellers are seeing today is that they are having to sell for FAIR market value and not INFLATED market value.  Being an agent of the 1980's and watching the dollar volumes raise and fall, this is just another cycle in the market.  I do not believe I will ever see the likes of 2004/2005, but if it does happen again, I promise this time I will save a little more money.  I would like to know what other areas are seeing as far as inflation vs deflations.