I’m comparing the month of January 2008 to the month of January 2009.  It is not really a good comparison in some ways, as a large sale can skew the results.  But it is a brief snap shot of what’s happening. As the year goes, by, I’ll start comparing the combined months of the year. For example, the next blog will be a comparison of January and February and so on.

Residential sales for the month of January 2009 increased five percent over January 2008. The average sales price declined eighteen percent from an average sales price of $449,358 to $370,351 from 2008 to 2009. However, in January of 2008 there was one sale of $1,950,000 which really skews the average sales price. Taking that out of the equation, the average sales price for January 2008 drops to an average sales price of $372,155 which is about what the sales price is this year.

Average days on the market remained almost the same, 140 days in 2008 compared to 138 days in 2009. To make a long story short, sales in January of this year compared to sales in January of last year are about the same.

Let’s see how the rest of the year goes. I believe the market is picking up and I expect there is going to be a lot of help from the Federal Government in the coming months.   A lot of investors are jumping into the market realizing that this is a great time to buy.