Market Activity – January 25, 2010

As the beginnings of 2010 progress, the MRIS region is continuing to see a consistent pattern of strong home sales and weak new listings. For the week ending January 16 there were 2,193 signed purchase agreements, up 24.0 percent from a year ago. New listings posted 3,605 units, down 1.7 percent.

As you likely know, the home buyer tax credit’s been expanded to include a $6,500 incentive for buyers who have owned a home for five years of the last eight. Since we can safely assume that many of these buyers will need to sell their home first before buying a new one, new listings numbers might shed light on how much effect the new credit is having.

So far, it doesn’t appear to be much. Over the last three months, the number of new listings has been 7.9 percent behind the same period one year prior. With less than 100 days left until the credit expires, we’ll be watching closely in the weeks ahead to see whether this trend changes.