It’s obvious, sales are trending down, and, inventory is trending up. Only one way for prices to go, DOWN. I just got back from surveying the market at about 10 open houses here on the Westside of LA. Very little traffic as I could see from the sign in sheets. Also realtors tend to be a little listless today. Contingent offers and escrows falling out, no pending offers on anything, and generally not very helpful, unless they think your a client. I like to gauge the market by open house activity. It was definitely quiet out there today. Plus it is looking like SIGN WARS out there. 95% of the corners (No exaggeration.) had at least 1 sign, often times 2,3 or 4. My sense is there aren’t many REAL buyers out there now, that the easy credit spigot has been turned off. Also, no real motivation to buy presently. Just buyers “kicking tires” so to speak, and checking prices. I have also noticed that the amount of sales comparables coming through on Zillow is becoming less and less each week. My sense is the market is withering..
I will be very curious to see numbers for May that include Volume and $/sqft. My sense is they will be down considerably.
Here is an interesting website that shows visually what is happening with 1)Inventory, 2)REOs, 3)Number of Sales
The real story is, what is NOT selling, as opposed to what IS selling. Also, Volume change, as median prices are most likely skewed upward, with subprime meltdowns taking out the bottom tier.
