South Orange's average residential listing price fell from $641,361 to $595,483, representing a 7.15% reduction in March 2009 over March 2008.

The variance in the number of listings for the same period was negligible, one less this year than last year's 161.

 2009 saw a surge in new listings at 44, up from 31 last year. The average price of a property listed in March 2009 was $573,302 down from the $604,823 of March 2008; representing a 5.21% drop in the average listing price for new  listings.

Fourteen listings went under contract in both years during the month of march. However, the real difference is in the average list price of the properties that went under contract, representing a 3.77% reduction over last year - from $620,064 to $596,671.

Additionally, in March 2009 properties were averaging 74 days on the market before closing, the same as March of 2008.

On the bright side the average sales price was up by 17.76% from $484,071 in 2008 to $570,056 in 2009.

March is the beginning of spring and the real estate selling season. That is why I am starting with March to develop a trend analysis for the absorption rate of residential properties in South Orange. The absorption rate is the number of weeks required to sell the current inventory based upon the present rate of sales. For March 2009, we will use the number of sales in February 2009 as a basis for going forward; that number is four for the month. That averages out to one a week. Therefore, it would take roughly 160 weeks or just over three years to sell all of the active inventory. You can begin to see how critical a role pricing plays in the marketing process, when confronted with such challenges.