I received these statistics today from a title company.  They are for February 2009 vs February 2008

King County:

Total Active Listings          2009 / 9,525        2008 / 9,875               

    % change vs 1 year ago    -3.54%

 Median Price         2009 / $375,000       2008 / $429,900 

    % change vs 1 year ago     -12.77% 

 Total Sales         2009 / 661        2008 / 1,148

    % change vs 1 year ago     -42.5% 

The fact that the median price dropped 12.77% doesn’t surprise me nearly as much as the fact that we closed 42.5% less units.  That is a huge decrease.  I am curious if it is a sign of a worse year or if it’s because everyone was waiting to find out what would happen after the stimulus package goes into effect.  If March is down as well then I’ll assume it’s the former.  On an anecdotal note, I’ve seen a pick up in business for our company so I am hoping that we just had a lot of people on the fence last month.