ARMLS STATS 1/11/2010

2009 Sales Top 92,000 Closings

PENDING: 10,125
Pending Single Fam: 8,823

AWC: 5,955
AWC Sfam: 5,140

Closed: 1,029
Closed Sfam: 881

CLOSED 2009: 92,336
Closed Sfam: 81,425

Active: 34,199
Active Sfam: 26,756

Activity is very slow during the first few weeks of January, so not much to report. The most interesting thing is that we topped 92,000 sales in 2009. Here are the annual sales in the last decade:

2000: 55,400
2001: 62,523
2002: 68,411
2003: 79,512
2004: 98,294
2005: 104,133
2006: 74,106
2007: 54,231
2008: 59,233
2009: 92,336

One could look at this and say 2009 was the third best month of the decade, and that obviously isn't true. The sales were there, but of course the prices were much lower. It is encouraging that people have faith in the market, and are buying. We have had a massive deflation, not just in real estate, so we have to keep that in mind. Food prices have been falling, your cost of buying consumer electronics falls all the time, the price of clothing has come down substantially as suppliers have had to accept less profit, and the price of furnishings has decreased. Energy prices have fallen from their peak, but they have been rising again. Unfortunately, your fees and taxes have gone up, please remember to thank your elected officials....By and large though, Home prices have fallen along with everything else, and in addition slipped further due to its falling out of favor (temporarily) as an asset class. That will change, as it is a necessity none of us can do without.

The point is, we have had a very good year for sales; prices may not be there yet, but we at least have demand for the inventory that is there. We still have a great situation in this state- fine weather, a growing diversity in our economy, fairly good infrastructure, and proximity and one might say ground zero for the population migration of the baby boomers. There is much to be optimistic about, but we are just not out of the woods yet on the housing issues, as the financial crisis ruined the trust relationships banks and business had. Banks won't lend, businesses won't expand because they are afraid of the economy. We are still working through this, and may be well through 2010. It will be interesting where we are in March in terms of demand for housing; it is going to give us a good indication of the speed of sales recovery for the rest of the year.