Monday Morning Numbers 10/5/09

Here we are again. Another Monday morning, another update on market numbers for the Lompoc Valley:

Active Listings: 69
Contingent Listings: 62
Pending Listings: 53 (28.8% of the inventory)
New listings: 5
Months of inventory: 4.0
Click here for an updated price per square foot chart.

Our inventory level continues to drop sharply this week. Even a few months ago when we started to see this trend, I would never have guessed that we'd be below 70 active units. If things continue at this rate, we might see the number of contingent listings outpace active listings. That's just nuts. It doesn't help that we've had a couple of straight weeks of anemic numbers for new listings, and we're starting to eat through some of that unlisted REO inventory now. We're down to about 45 REO properties that haven't yet hit the market, and we've not been seeing many go back to the bank in recent weeks. We may be looking at this type of inventory level for a few months.

I'm not sure if I'll have a "Focus On" post later this week. I'm doing the C.A.R. meeting thing again up in San Jose this week. What that typically means is that we'll get three or four fires on the business front that need to be put out, and Diane will be scrambling to keep everything together while I'm sitting in meetings. I was lucky to find her long before I got into this business, and now I'm doubly lucky to have her.

And if I say nice things about her on here, maybe she won't change the locks while I'm gone...