It's the start of the year .. so it can be difficult to try and understand the story the numbers are telling today. Certainly this is always the slowest time of the year for us.

However I think there are several trends we can identify that will be important to both sellers and buyers.

The graph below is the same information I've been providing every month - I just reworked the size for the next year. I'm not sure if I'm happy with the compression .... if you'd like one printed on a legal sized page just let me know and I'll get one to you.

2008 was not a good year ... no surprise there. The market did not track as a typical year would. We didn't get the push in May, June and July we would have expected, then we seemed to hold our own for the fall.

But by looking back ~ we see that the sales in January has been falling for several years, after leveling off in 2006 and 2007. The sales in 2009 are off almost 30% from the January sales in 2007. At the same time January inventory for the same period is up almost 20%.

Looking back to 2006 January sales are DOWN 30% January Inventory is UP over 30%

Another View .. scroll down below the first graph.