Good real estate news seems hard to come by these days, as industry analysts wax on about subprime mortgage losses, the credit crunch and foreclosures on the rise. But on Long Island, there have been glimmers of hope in the first half of 2008.

According to the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, an agency that tracks reported home sales and closing price data (excluding data on bank short sales and for-sale-by-owners), there are at least a half dozen local communities showing signs of “beating the bust” in 2008.

While the number of home sales dropped in these three Nassau and three Suffolk villages and hamlets, their average sale prices (a tabulation of all closing prices divided by the overall number of sales in a specific time period) rose - in two cases, by more than 10 percent.

“Real estate is inherently local,” says Rachel Drew, research analyst for Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. “Some places remain desirable no matter how the economy is doing.”

But even though some of these houses sold for 10 to 15 percent less than their original asking prices, the sales still show the strength of the market in certain communities, says Seth Pitlake, sales associate for Prudential Douglas Elliman Realty in Merrick. “If the home is not priced right for today’s market, you’re going to sit until you are within the range of the comparables in the neighborhood,” he says.

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