If you've been following along at home, you know that the Baltimore metro area's housing market had slightly lower average prices last month and a big drop in sales. But if real estate is really about location, location, location, wouldn't it be useful to know what happened at a more local level?

I thought so, which is why I've just crunched the numbers that way. If you focus on the 87 ZIP codes in the metro area that had at least five sales last month and at least five sales in November 2006, according to data from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, here's what you'll see:

ZIP codes where sales rose: 11 percent

Where sales fell: 82 percent

Where sales remained flat: 7 percent

ZIP codes where average prices rose: 43 percent

Where prices fell: 55 percent

Where prices remained flat: 2 percent

ZIP codes with at least 10 percent gains in average price: 23 percent

ZIP codes with at least 10 percent losses in average price: 34 percent

Number of the 10 most expensive ZIP codes that saw average prices fall: 1

Number of the 10 least expensive ZIP codes that saw average prices fall: 8

Most expensive ZIP code in November: 21029 (Clarksville), at about $825,000 - prices rose 2 percent

Least expensive ZIP code in November: 21205 (Baltimore, near Johns Hopkins Hospital), at about $56,000 - prices dropped 12 percent

Find Jamie's blog at baltimoresun.com/ realestatewonk.