April 21, 2005

There were 5,678 single-family closings in March. This was 0.8% above the same year ago period, but after
lagged closings are reported we should be close to a 7-10% increase.

There were 725 townhome and condo closings in March. This was only a 2% increase over March 2004, so
after 21 consecutive double digit increases and the lagged closings have been accounted for we may have our
streak stopped.

The average sale price for all single family was $240,599. This is a 5% increase over March 2004, but all of
this increase came from single family detached.

The average sale price for condos and townhomes declined from the same year ago period for the third
consecutive month in 2005. This also marks the 12th time in the past 17 months that we have experienced a
year-to-year decline. The reason this is happening? There are more new construction condos and
townhomes being sold than there are resales and most of this new construction is lower priced product. We
do not see a lot of these transactions in FMLS, as they are presales or purchased before they are built or
completed.

If you review the absorption reports you will see that condo and townhome resales have the highest months of-
inventory at 11.5. This is almost double that of single family detached resales, which are at 6.6 months of-
inventory. Using our basic supply versus demand theory, one can see why condos and townhomes are
going down in price, while single family detached has been up strong.

The number of expired listings for single family detached declined in March versus the same year ago
period. This is the 4th consecutive period and the 5th time out of the past 6 months we have experienced a
decline after 56 consecutive increases!

Condo and townhome expired listings have continued to experience increases over the same year ago period.
For the 65th consecutive month, condos and townhomes had a year-to-year increase.

The days-on-market for all single family was 82.2 in March. The DOM for condos and townhomes was at
90.1. This was the fourth consecutive 90+ DOM for condos and townhomes and this is the first time this has
ever occurred since records have been kept for this statistic.

Days-on-market for single family detached was at 81.0 in March. This was the 6th consecutive monthly year to-
year increase after 7 of the first 9 months in 2004 had a decrease.

Thank you,
 

Steve Palm
Smart Numbers

© 2005 Smart Numbers