trying to get xml variables w/php

hey what's up. Here is the xml I'm working with:

<response>
    <query>help</query>
    <location></location>
    <dupefilter>true</dupefilter>
    <highlight>false</highlight>

    <totalresults>277309</totalresults>
    <start>1</start>
    <end>10</end>
    <results>

        <result>
            <jobtitle>Help Desk</jobtitle>

            <company>Harris Corporation</company>
            <city>Herndon</city>
            <state>VA</state>
            <country>US</country>
            <source>Harris Corporation</source>
            <date>Sat, 17 Nov 2007 07:48:17 GMT</date>

            <snippet>Help Desk Job ID: HTSC11071022 Service Desk... environment, preferably in an IT call center/help desk environment. * Ability to adjust to varying...</snippet>
            <url>http://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=3daf970e51f75243&amp;indpubnum=4273936228542969</url>
            <onmousedown>indeed_clk(this,'4896');</onmousedown>

            <jobkey>3daf970e51f75243</jobkey>
        </result>
   </results>
</response>

Code (markup):

At the top, under <response> are the variables I need. I can get the info out of the <results> heading using a foreach loop:

foreach ($avail->results-> result as $result)

But I can't seem to figure out why I can't get the variables out of the top. I've tried:

$searchresults = $avail->response->totalresults;

and

$searchresults = $avail->totalresults;

I'm not sure why I can't get these. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

oh and if it helps, $avail = simplexml_load_file(longassurl);

thx