A Glint of Hope in Recent Stats

For the most recent MLS sales data, most numbers continued to show a negative trend for real estate values and market strength overall. These numbers are comparing December of 2005 with December of 2006. The average sales price for a residential dwelling was down 10% with $567,412 being the average for 2005 and $510,848 being the average for 2006. Active listings went up 29%, number of sales was down 20%, expired listings were up 279%, but the promising figure for me is that the total number of listings taken was down 45% for the residential market. So we must be getting to the end of some of this inventory- it is not being created as quickly as developers are losing confidence and inventories are starting to get absorbed. The condominium market was down in listings by 40% as well showing that with less coming onto the market there may be an end in sight to this lopsided market.