2008 Yearly MLS Statistics

2008 was certainly a different year. We entered the year hoping to avoid getting caught in the American meltdown, and ended the year finding out that U.S. troubles were much bigger than we thought, and our attachment to their problems were unavoidable.

The numbers for the year are strange. In late spring, the volume of sales started to decline, but oddly enough, the prices continued to rise. Historically, this has never happened, and by October, the prices had stopped increasing and are now level or in a marginal decline.

The other strange thing, is how the Kitchener-Waterloo market at this point in time, does not appear statistically to be facing the downturn as much as Cambridge. To my knowledge, there is no reason for this, and I would expect this difference to level out.

The real bad news is the new listings to sale ratio. In Cambridge, for the year, the ratio has now dropped below the dreaded 50% level. This means that when you list your house, you have less than a 50% chance of selling. Not good.

Many forecasters are seeing a turn around in the spring or second quarter. Let's hope they are right. The general feeling around the office in early January is that buyers and sellers seem to be starting to take action after months of "wait and see". Let's hope that keeps up.

Here are the numbers:

	K-W This Year	K-W Last Year	Cambridge This Year	Cambridge Last Year
Avg. Sale Price	$ 264,367	$248,882	$256,044	$242,793
Percentage Change	+6.2%		+5.4%
Properties Sold	6111	6811	2521	2991
New Listings/Sales Ratio	61.0%	70.6%	48.3%	58.6%
Properties For Sale Now	1562	1231	847	736