Warmer than normal...Where's the contracts

Ok...The snow has melted, where are all of the contracts? Slooowly it is picking up. This weeks contracts were up from last week but not by much. 75 in the last week, with a total of 289 for the month. The new listings are still at a slow pace with only 53 this week and a total of 463 for the month. The total inventory in Frederick County sits at an almost all time high of 1141. The numbers seem to lopsided as I mentioned last week. So, I started to pull the expired and withdrawn listings. The make up the difference with 178 for the month. IMHO, I see the frustration in the sellers as the sellers are switching agents because their home is not selling. I am seeing a lot more CKO contracts...(Contigency with a Kick Out) Buyers are now making offers on homes with a "Home to sale" contigency. Homes are sitting on the market for a little longer these days... About 85 days on average. In other words...The market is normalizing. Buyers have choices and sellers need to be flexible to make contracts work. This is not a bad thing, we needed to slow it down a little before our entry level homes become $500,000 for first time buyers.

After the snow melts...

I have been watching for some time now the inventory of homes in Frederick County. I usually watch the total number of homes, the new contracts, and new listings. My information comes for the listing information in the Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (my MLS company).

I have always been a numbers guy. My montra in my prior life as an District Ops Manager was "In God we trust...all others bring data!" I was alittle surprised to see the low numbers. I like to see a small snapshot of the industry... it helps me gauge immediate trends. The numbers I monitor, are what goes "under contract in the last 7 days". Today it was 59. January had an average of 75 per 7 days. (and Month to date was 149) This gives me an idea of what is potentially going to leave inventory. (unfortunately, even though you go under contract, doesn't always mean you make it to settlement) One of the other numbers I watch is the number of "new listings in the last 2 days". (don't ask why this one is only the last 2 days and the other is the last 7...that's the way I like to look at the list) But anyways, the listings today were 49 (usually about 60) with a month to date of 266. Either way you look at these numbers one is bigger than the other. This is a tell-tale sign that the inventory will climb. (this does not mean the sky is falling) The total inventory is 1108. (everything but rentals) I did see a small spike in sales last month, but this month seems to be a little sluggish. The snow may have had alot to do with it... or the small increase in interest rates. Only time will tell.

Gotta Start somewhere

This is, hopefully, the first of many blogs. I plan on making this blog as interesting as possible about the local market conditions, events and activities in and around Frederick County Maryland. I also intend to post some interesting links that I may come across.

But, let me preface this blog with a disclaimer about me, I can be a cynic, a critic and sarcastic. By no means do I ever intend to intentionally offend anyone, but sometimes that happens. And here I will offer that apology now. I enjoy having fun. So, if there is anything that I will try to do, is educate in a most humorous and entertaining way. I always enjoy feedback, so please feel free to comment. Please check back for more.