MLS Stats 1-29/08

MLS stats encompassing 1/21/08-1/27/08

We are starting to get some very interesting news in the resale housing market in January, even before rates were lowered by the FED. Here they are, with commentary to follow:

NEW AW/C CONTRACTS PASS 700 this week!

Pending Sales: 4205 ( +369 from last week)

Pending + AW/C 4933 ( +477 from last week)

Closed Escrows: 506 ( -159 from last week)

Active Listings: 55516 (+543 from last week)

Closed Month to Date (1/29/08) 2144


This has to be a reason for optimism. The number of newer contracts (AW/C) is growing at a good clip. This bodes well for February. January sales may not be particularly high, for reasons I have explained previously, but there seems to be a very solid uptick in new contracts that will likely close in February/March. For comparison sake, the usual reading for this number since last August when I started tracking these numbers was in the 400's. In fact, I don't believe us breaking through to 500 until January of this year. Now we have passed 700. This is helpful. The number of closings is down for the week, but not unexpected for a middle week. I would expect a large bunching of closings to end the month next week, as is usual. The month may only be on par with December as far as closings, but the pending numbers are showing to be much better. There are almost 5,000 homes under contract, another number we have not seen in a while. December MLS sales were 3398 , and given previous statistics in the last week, we are likely to pass or meet that number.

To temper a bit of this enthusiasm is that active listings have continued to climb off their recent lowpoint. January is a month where many homes go on the market, so maybe this is not unexpected; it is not a drastic increase, but it would be far helpful were it to fall 1% instead of rising 1%. This number needs to come down before prices will find strong footing again.