Home sales in Amarillo, Texas, area increase by 6 percent during 2004.

By Cheryl Berzanskis, Amarillo Globe-News, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jan. 7--The number of houses sold through Amarillo's Multiple Listing Service grew by 6 percent during 2004.

By the same token, dollar volume grew by 14.2 percent.

And here's what you really wanted to know: the average sales price of homes purchased increased by 7 percent.

According to figures compiled by the service and released by Prudential Ada, Realtors, about 2,950 home sales closed in the last year. That's second only to the 1978 record of 3,109, said Greg Glenn of Prudential Ada, Realtors.

He called the 2004 market pace "torrid."

Glenn attributed the 7 percent increase in prices to the declining supply of homes on the market.

"We are running out of the lower-priced homes," Glenn said. "It seems as if you have a bigger middle in terms of demand, where people want not the smallest nor the largest home available." …