January 2013 Market Snapshot

January is traditionally one of the lowest months of the year in terms of closed transactions. With such low inventory, this year's closings were even lower than normal, down 18% versus 2011. But demand remains extremely high, pushing prices up in every city to average a 43% increase. That's the greatest year-over-year increase in 3 years. Finally, homes are selling 3.2% over original listing price. That's 8.1 points higher than last year. We expect February will remain slow but competitive, and with interest rates as low as they are, we don't expect demand to lessen anytime soon.