Sales in April were 229 homes in Marion County. That’s a large increase over January at 142, February at 188 and about the same as March which was 220. Total listings also dropped below 6,000 which is great news.I am seeing a huge increase in buyer activity. I’m getting between 50 and 75 visitors a day to my web site and several contacts from buyers every week. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this increase in buyer interest is because home prices have dropped so much. The median home price in Marion County fell 16% in 2008 and more in certain areas.

In my opinion we are at or near the bottom of the market. I don’t expect prices to go up any time soon because there is still way too much inventory, 5900 +/- homes in relation to the number of monthly sales. We have about 30 months of inventory. A buyers market is defined as anything over 6 months of inventory. I think prices will remain fairly flat for the next several years or appreciate at the historical average of 5% or so. The days of 20% appreciation are over and won’t come back in most people’s life times.