It expired on 4/30.

Norm, 7 sales on Friday, nothing on Monday (!) and it doesn’t sound like much today, either… “Ouch!” indeed. We may see that surge (by default) yet…

I was mucking around beneath the hood of this blog and caused some issues with comments which I believe I have sorted out this morning. You’re looking at everything that’s been submitted but there’s no doubt that my fiddling has interrupted the flow of conversation.

Sales? Strange indeed to be sitting at the 5th with only seven sales reported. Could be that real estate agents are taking every spare moment to play while it’s warm thinking that their sales reports can wait. I don’t ever recall a day where there were no sales reported. Maybe someone has been “mucking around” under the hood of the MLS.

My sense about business is just the opposite of what you see in the numbers over the past few days. Lyndon and I have both been putting in additional hours to get everything done.

I won’t panic too much, unless the current trend continues through today.

Hardly any comments on the blog, Monday had 0 houses sold and 50 listed, and Friday May 1st had 32 listings and only 7 sales? What’s going on Norm?

How often does that happen that there is a day with no sales? Probably more common than I realize, huh?

Are the comments working properly?

Yes Luke, leave the darkside…

Rick had some excellent points in his other post, so I’ll just quote one line here which I particularly agree with: “I think we would be just as far ahead if we came to terms with the situation, and planned our best defense.”

And no worries Norm (it was particularly nice this weekend).

Hmmm. I understand the logic behind that editorial, Jason, but hasn’t the strategy of “hoping for the best and preparing for the worst” always been prudent? I’m all for taking all possibilities into account, but one has to walk this line delicately… I don’t want to get “frozen in the headlights”, either. I have to say that I find that “fearing hope” line very hard to swallow- we still need to live our lives and move forward, yes? Hope and delusion are not the same thing, nor are they necessarily dependent on each other. I would agree with the idea that those hoping for a quick return to the “boom mirage economy” circa 2006-2007 are in for a bit of a shock, but there’s always things to be hopeful for.

“For a happier life, shake off your misplaced optimism. It has been clear for a while, at least since the first talk started about “green shoots” of recovery, that what we have to fear above all is hope. Attempts to trust that the worst is over and to stop frightening ourselves seem doomed to project us into yet worse disappointment. We are not only unhappy but – believing calm and happiness to be the norm – unhappy that we are unhappy.” -:- “No one should make an investment, undertake to run a company, sit on a board or leave money in a bank without an awareness … of the darkest possibilities” -:- “Nothing ought to be unexpected by us. Our minds should be sent forward in advance to meet all the problems, and we should consider, not what is wont to happen, but what can happen.”

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/Business/Housing+market+stabilizing+official/1556766/story.html

I like that: ‘official’. That’s definitely getting creative; 2 points for the SP. I wouldn’t say a drop of 250 houses from last year is “significant”, though; at best it represents several weeks to one month of inventory.

“”It has given opportunity again to the first-time home buyer who was literally edged out of the market,” said Janzen.” I’d also tend to disagree with this comment. If it wasn’t for continuing low interest rates propping up unit sales and average housing prices I think we’d be under a $250k average. And then at that point the first-time buyer might actually have some opportunities. The comment about multiple offers is also highly misleading; 2-3 properties with multiple offers does not a trend establish.

But I digress. Like the new colors on the graphs, Norm. It looks less and less likely that we’re going to see a ‘surge’ of new listings in late Spring. I can’t help but think a lot of sellers are staying out of the market with prices having softened; either they’re waiting on the sidelines for signs of improvement (higher selling prices, more buyers, fewer sellers) before listing or perhaps the 1,400+ listings accurately represents people that need to sell. I’m not going to rule out a late Summer surge – especially if we see housing prices decline over the next few months.

Looks like we’ll be waiting until 2010 for a substantial correction.