Up, up, up: There's nowhere but up from here

I think it's appropriate that Disney's new animated movie, UP, was just released because it seems our real estate market too is going up!

According to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, inventory is shrinking, sales are rising, and prices are stabilizing in some Northwest MLS areas. "Waiting longer to buy a home is not likely to pay off, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service director Kathy Estey after reviewing reports summarizing May activity. Estey pointed to shrinking inventory (about 20 percent fewer listings than a year ago), double-digit increases in the number of pending sales (up 17.7 percent from a year ago), solid open house activity, and signs of stabilizing prices (eight of the 19 counties in the report show price gains since January) as indicators of an improving market."

Buyers had fewer choices during May than at this time a year ago. At month-end, member-brokers reported 41,318 active listings throughout the NWMLS service area. A year ago, there were 51,817 active listings. Current inventory includes 11,278 single family homes and condos that brokers added during May. For the same month a year ago, brokers added 14,176 new listings to inventory.

Even in the national news, we are hearing that the worst may be over. "But many analysts believe that the worst part of the recession is coming to an end. They expect GDP to decline by a smaller 2 percent to 3 percent in the current quarter and then turn slightly positive in the second half of this year.

More than 90 percent of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics are predicting that the current recession, now the longest since World War II, will end either in the third quarter or by the fourth quarter of this year." (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30979615)

Even though sales of existing homes are up, throwing off signals that it may be bumping along the bottom, and the ride is likely to be a little rough. The good news though, is that there really is nowhere but up from here!