This past week our listings saw an average of 1.3 showings each.   Showing traffic has most certainly slowed in the past couple of weeks.   Could it be that we are approaching a holiday weekend or a continued sluggish market?   The market stats seem to indicate that things are still slow but heading in the right direction.

We’ll be publishing our monthly E-Newsletter this week which will report the real estate market statsfor Mecklenburg County in April.   Here a quick summary when comparing April with the both the previous month and then again to April of last year:

Home sales were up 6.6% from last month, but down 14.4% from last year.

Average sales price was was down 1.8% from last month, but up 1% from last year.

Median sales price was even with last month, but down 3% from last year.

Average time on market was down 4% from last month, but up 3% from last year.

Pending home sales were up 1.5% from last month, but down 15% from last year.

Housing supply is up 2.4% from last month, but down 5.9% from last year.

Mortgage rates are flat from last month, but down slightly from last year.

The stats above are about as expected and possibly even a little better than expected considering that this year is being compared to last year, when  home buyer tax incentives were being offered.   While last year, the tax credits created inflated demand, this year the market seems to be operating on its own.   In fact, the only numbers above that show a dramatic drop from last year  are the number of home sales and pending home sales.   However, home sales in April 2011 were actually up 30% over April of 2009 and pendings are up over 24% during the same periods.   Clearly, the tax credits created a false surge in the real estate markets and any media spin related to a “double dip” in housing can be attributed directly to that  abnormal demand.

The market is most definitely recovering.   There are still lots of foreclosures that are bringing values down more than usual.   But soon enough  the foreclosure inventory  will flush through the system and we’ll be back to a  more normal market.   The question is how long with that take?    Unfortunately, no one really knows the answer to that question.