Today we look at the Monterey market.

In the last 30 days we’ve had only two closed sales and three pending sales, rather paltry numbers.  For the last three months though (Dec, Jan, Feb) we’ve had 23 closed sales, up from 18 sales in the same period last year.  Inventory has increased modestly from 85 this time last year to 89 today.

Looking a bit deeper into the numbers, December ’08 had 16 sales, as did October ’08.  Prior to these months, the last time there have been at least 16 sales in a month was August 2005.  Wow!  This is a clear sign that buyers are starting to see that this is a great time to buy.  Months of inventory had dropped to a respectable, although still buyer-advantaged, 11.6 months (remember, 6 months of inventory is typically considered a balanced market).  Anecdotally, we’re starting to hear buyers say that they think they are running out of time to get in on what could be the best opportunity to pick up a Monterey Peninsula property in decades.  What do you think?