Front Lines

The spring market thus far has certainly kept us guessing. January & February gave every indication that the market was poised to take off but then Mach fizzled. April's numbers picked up again but are still not where we hoped they would be. The number of available townhomes continued to drop from 72 in March to 58 in April. the bad news is that the number of properties coming under contract dropped as well from 81 to 64. (Compare that to the 123 we sold last April due to the stimulus incentives!) The average Days on the Market also continued to improve dropping to 29 in April from 39 in March and 48 in February! So, while the number of contracts dropped, the inventory and days on the market continued its decline which is positive overall. The single family sector actually went the other way with inventory continuing to increase substantially to 65 in April from 50 in March and 37 in February. The good news is that the number of contracts came back from March's dismal 27 to 39 in April. Given that, march and April are the big months of our spring market. This is not the best but it is an improvement. Our market could be languishing for many reasons; the turmoil in the Middle East, gas prices, uncertainty over the budget or just because we have not been able to string two days of nice weather together over a weekend. Any or all of the reasons or something I am not even aware of could be the issue but the root of the problem is consumer confidence. Buyers are scared to make a decision and they are plucking off the exceptional values or the exceptional properties and sometimes even those are sitting. Decisions can only be delayed for so long and those that are suffering from the paralysis of analysis will wind up missing the best our market has to offer. The number of foreclosures as a percentage of available inventory has continued to drop. The number of short sales has increased although overall the percentage of distressed properties has fallen. Hopefully in May we will see the increased activity of April at least continue. I will as usual keep you informed as our market continues to unfold.