All of the statements in the article are correct, except that we are still talking about a very small percentage of homes selling every month as opposed to the active inventory. I track extensively the number of homes going under contract and the number of homes available monthly and as a percentage the most desirable neighborhoods are only selling, at best, about 10 - 12% of the inventory in any month. In Washington Village for example, only 7 homes are under contract out of 167 available. That's a little over 4%. Canton is at 9.7%, Fells Point at 5.7% and Federal Hill at 8.7%. This is not a city phenomenon as pricy areas like Anne Arundel County are only a little over 11%. It's good to see some positive news though and more of it will hopefully get things going again. Some sellers have truly priced their homes to sell and now if buyers would only look.

I think the title of the article is misleading. Check out the stat Dominic provided in a previous reply:

"In Washington Village for example, only 7 homes are under contract out of 167 available. That's a little over 4%."

The article really should focus on how long it is taking for houses to sell and how unsold inventory is growing. There are always going to be reasonable deals in any market that will sell quickly. That is not a new phenomenon of note.

I think Dominic's stats are very useful and help show the unsold home issue we've been harping about -- er, mentioning -- for months. But that doesn't mean Lorraine's story wasn't worth doing or was somehow hiding the problem. I thought the headline put it pretty well, actually: "A few houses still sell in days."

Dominic's comment about the Washington Villahe neighborhood concerns me. I wonder what is happening in Res. Hill and other neighborhood outside of downtown.

I think that the point of the article is that when homes are appropriately priced for the marketplace AND/OR they are superior in quality, they still sell in days. She interviewed a number of talented agents who all had pretty accurate things to say about the marketplace. The excess of inventory certainly comes in part from a lack of buyers, but it also comes in a much larger part from unrealistic pricing of uninteresting inventory. Sellers need to be counseled that they can't just pick a price out of thin air, or expect to have competing offers on their property that is already over-priced. The biggest change that we have made in our business over the past year is to allow ourselves the ability to turn down business. If we have a client that is grounded in reality rather than hung up on what their neighbor sold their house for during the boom, the we are genrerally able to move that listing.