If you've been feeling dejected with the home assessments received earlier this year, this space might have something for you to still smile about. Conventional wisdom holds that sales slow down during the colder season. But when we talk about trends and slow-downs, are we talking about number of residential sales dipping by 50 percent from summer months? 25 percent? What about sale prices? Do winter months mean sale prices dip too? The Daily List looked at data from the State Department of Assessments and Taxation to find out for ourselves.

For District 4, which is the region of interest to Odenton and Gambrills residents, there were 179 residential, arms-length sales in June, 97 in July and 106 in August. In the months of November and December, there were 89 and 93 sales respectively.

In other words, the number of sales in November and December were lower than the lowest number of sales in a summer month, and about 50 percent lower than the highest month (June) .

Interesting fact: Number of sales in July were not that much more than November or December sales.

The trend is not so obvious when we look at median prices of homes sold. August sales clocked the highest median price at $316,000. Interestingly enough, November and December median prices ($300,000 and $296,336 respectively) were not appreciably different from June median ($299,900) and were in fact higher than July's median sale prices ($285,000).

Six months worth of data is not anything to make predictions on. But when Debbie Downers make their dire pronouncements about sale trends, maybe it's time to pay the friendly folks at SDAT a virtual visit. You might be surprised by what you find, or the data might confirm what you already know. In either case, you'll have enough stats for a cool conversation.

Here's a list of sought-after Odenton and Gambrills neighborhoods.

Ranked by number of residential arms length sales in Dec. 2010:

1. Piney Orchard (13 sales, median price of homes sold: $260,000)

2. Carroll's Creek (7 sales, median price: $286,380)

3. Seven Oaks (6 sales, median price: $245,000)

4. Four Season's Estates (3 sales, median price: $291,000)

5. Odenton Heights (2 sales, median price: $230,000)

Ranked by median sale price:

1. Four Season's Estates (3 sales, median price: $291,000)

2. Carroll's Creek (7 sales, median price: $286,380)

3. Piney Orchard (13 sales, median price of homes sold: $260,000)

4. Seven Oaks (6 sales, median price: $245,000)

5. Odenton Heights (2 sales, median price: $230,000)