Demand, measured by “pending sales” or homes that are in escrow, rose 59% for the year 2008.
In December, there was one open escrow for every 3.2 homes. In January, thus far, it’s one for every 1.74 listings! In our office alone we have over 35 new open escrows since Jan 1.
There was a 25% drop in the number of listings in the market last year.
Sales increased 10.4% over 2007, and were approaching 2006 levels the last quarter of 2008!

The thought is that if there is a 6-month or greater supply of inventory, that constitutes a “Buyer’s Market”. Anything less is a “Seller’s Market”. Where are we now? 6.1 months! So we are right on the edge! In nearby towns, it’s similar or even less- Rossmoor and Signal Hill are also in the 6-month range. Cypress, Lakewood, Los Alamitos and Cerritos are in the 3-and 4 month range. Only Seal Beach shows a stronger “buyer’s market”- 12 months worth of inventory. This is probably due to the higher price points in that town, and jumbo loans have, until recently, been pretty prohibitive.

She reminds her newsletter readers that:

• 76 million households in the US own their home- that’s a number that is hard to beat anywhere internationally.
• 24 million of these homes are owned FREE AND CLEAR
• 52 million homes hold mortgages.
• Of these,97.2% of these are NOT in foreclosure. Only 1.4 million are. (We only hear about the numbers that are, but in a larger perspective, it’s a minimal number)
• 93.8% of these homes are current on their payments
• 20% (11 million) of these homeowners have a mortgage that is higher than their home’s worth, but they are making their payments!

40% of all foreclosures are NON-OWNER OCCUPIED!