2010 is the year!

Wow what a start! While usually January is a sleeper month, not this year!! Buyers were out there anxiously waiting more inventory to hit the market and ready to jump on the somewhat perfect house out of desperation. My business is booming and I hear that most agents are in the same boat, at least in the East Bay (Contra Costa and Alamdeda counties). We saw a little bit of a lull from buyers afterwards waiting to see what else would come up and frankly nothing is coming up! There are only 5 homes total for sale in Albany and barely anymore in Berkeley!! Those that come up do sell fairly fast unless they are way overpriced and the sellers are stubborn, not listening to the market speak. I see from my pipeline and hear from others that spring will be very busy with lots of inventory waiting to make their grand entrance. A lot of people are trying to time the tax credit deadline by getting their house ready in March for an April 1st market time. I would frankly be surprised if the tax credit disappeared and interest rates increased as that could be lethal for the real estate market. Any opinion? Maybe one or the other but not both at the same time would make more sense so we can ease into it...