The market is staying pretty much level week to week. The inventory is creeping up and is now up to 42 single family homes on the market in Oak Hill/Herndon - up from 40 last week. We have netted up approximately 12 listings since January - so you can see a gradual change upwards.  This should substantially increase the first week after Easter when we should see a substantial increase in new houses hit in the month of April. This increase will be coinciding with the end of the Federal Government Incentive "First Time Buyer Credit" program. The government credit rules are that the house must be purchased between January 1, 2010 and April 30, 2010 and the house has to go to settlement before June 30, 2010. The credit is 10% of the purchase price up to $8,000. We will see soon just how much affect this first time credit has had on our local market. I would think we would start seeing a net increase in inventory as we go through the Spring market. There will be more competition for the sellers and sellers will have to rethink how they will get themselves sold. We had 7 new listings come on the market this week - 2 less than last week. The one on Pinecrest View is a foreclosure - originally purchased for $485,000 in November of 2005 and is now on the market at $365,500 - $150,000 loss to the lender in actual dollars and real estate costs - does not  include any other costs associated with the acquisition costs of the foreclosure. To see the new listings, click
http://mrislistings.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?k=524916XJRPL&p=DE-104371007-5. We had 7 homes sell this week - a little less than last week - but still a good number for the sellers. To see those, click http://mrislistings.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?k=524916XJRPL&p=DE-104371626-172. They were on the market from 3 to 55 days. As I have said in the past, hindsight is wonderful in real estate or any investment for that matter. Since there is no crystal ball, it will be interesting to see how this Spring market develops. Looking forward to the Spring's leafing of the trees and flowers in bloom.