If you’re reading this blog, chances are reasonable good that you look at other websites, too. (Amazing, no? I’m practically clairvoyant.) And if you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, you’ve heard the doom and gloom. If it isn’t articles about how the economy is tanking, it’s people tossing around the R-word* like it was about to go out of style. And the housing market? Don’t even get those guys started about home prices…

But the Wall Street Journal’s Economics Blog quietly added a post last week about the national housing market with a little bright spot: home sales in South Dakota are on the rise, and it’s the only state in the country to show the increase. According to the National Association of Realtors, home sales at the end of 2007 in South Dakota rose 8.9% over last year.

I know this isn’t exactly travel news, but it turns out that a lot of people who visit the Black Hills end up poking around to look for property before they leave. Some are just curious; others look for someplace in the trees they can retire to; a few want a second home for vacationing. Of course, at first glance, this data isn’t exactly encouraging for these folks. An increase in sales generally means an increase in prices.

On the other hand, it’s a sign that real estate in the Black Hills is a pretty stable investment. If you end up finding a perfect vacation home here, you can be reasonably confident that it’s going to whether the ups and downs of the economy much better than other places in the country.

*Oh yes; ‘Recession’ starts with a capital ‘R’ now, no matter where it is the sentence.