Stat of the Day: California House Listings at 3.5 Year Low

We've reported at numerous times over the last 6 months that the housing market in California is showing signs of bottoming. One of the biggest signs is in this OC Register report that housing listings have hit a level not seen since October 2005. The period when the slump began. From that level the inventory levels continued to soar until mid 2008 causing housing prices to decline. That trend has now completely reversed and the inventory levels are getting pretty low.

With interest rates low and housing affordability at highs, these inventory levels are consistent with higher prices going forward. Or at least stable prices that sure beat constant declines.

• It would take 6.3 months to sell last month’s inventory of houses for sale at May’s sales pace.
• That’s the lowest level since October 2005, considered the start of the housing slump because sales began to falter then.
• That’s three months quicker than the year before. The revised May 2008 listings index showed that it would have taken 9.5 months to sell all the houses then for sale.