Related: COMPARE PRICES BY ZIP CODE • Complete Home Report 2004

But that's not to say the price of any particular type of house dropped: Ultra-luxe lake homes with all the bells and whistles sat on the market longer, so builders pumped up the volume on scaled-down houses in the moderate $150,000 range.

"In the past, we didn't have those sales, generally thought of as starter homes," said Andy Walker, president of First National Bank of Forsyth County and chairman-elect of the Chamber of Commerce.

Although builders are continuing to craft houses at every price level, including many in the mid-level executive range up to $500,000, the numbers are based on actual sales in 2003, Walker said.

Sales prices dropped as the county led in percentage of increase in the volume of units, new and resale, sold.

Pockets in which prices dropped significantly, affecting the overall county average, were ZIP codes 30004 and 30024.

Even so, the county had the third-highest median sales price for new homes and the highest price for resales in metro Atlanta.

Frank Norton Jr., hired by Cumming/Forsyth Chamber of Commerce to conduct a study of the housing industry there, said sales in the "solid middle," from the $200,000s to $500,000, are brisk and he believes they will be for the rest of the decade.

"If you're a homebuilder, Forsyth County's the place to be," Norton said.

There is a slowdown in building of new homes from $750,000 and up because they remain on the market longer waiting for buyers, said Norton, president of the Norton Agency, headquartered in Gainesville.

Realtor Jeff Gordon said buyers also are starting to require fewer amenities and extras as they search for cost-effectiveness.

"People still want a good community," said Gordon, who with his wife, Trenna, sells for Prudential Georgia Realty. But buyers now might settle for three-quarters of an acre instead of an acre, five bedrooms instead of six, or a stubbed-out basement instead of a finished one.

Townhouses like the Wingate community, he said, sold as quickly as they could be built in the $130,000-$150,000 range.

"It's a buyer's market," Gordon said. "There's a lot of inventory out there."