Crofton Contracts Outnumber Listings in January 2012

Crofton weather was amazing in January, as residents enjoyed warmer than usual temperatures and an early hint of Spring ahead. Even the daffodil bulbs, birds, and bunny rabbits were fooled by Mother Nature!

It felt a bit like Spring in the real estate market, too, as 24 homes went under contract in the 21114 zipcode during January. Since this is down from 30 in January 2011, why would I consider this good news? The reason is simple: I'm looking at this number in context with the 17 new listings.

When we see a higher ratio of new contracts to new listings, it indicates the market is moving in the seller's favor.

I think we all agree this is a turnaround that's long overdue.

If you've followed my market studies over the past few years, you know I always look to these two sets of numbers for some indication of a turnaround. Instead of a growing inventory of homes for sale, we're now seeing a decline in the inventory. In fact, it's down almost 30%, from 105 in January 2011 to 75 in January 2012.

This was not the first time we've seen more new contracts than new listings in the past 12 months. In fact, it's the third time. And the ratio was relatively close in August, September, October and December.

My crystal ball isn't always in perfect focus, but this chart seems to indicate that Crofton home sellers have good reason to be optimistic about 2012. I think this trumps other Crofton real estate statistics reported by RBI, an MRIS company.

For more information about your own neighborhood or a breakdown of detached homes vs. attached homes sold in Crofton or currently on the market, please contact me.

This report was originally posted earlier today at FocusOnCrofton.com.