I have provided the graph above for those of you trying to make sense of the Housing market in El Cerrito. The graph follows Pending Sales and Active Listings on a week by week basis beginning in July of 2005 through January 14, 2007. (Data has been collected from EBRD MLS).

Actives - are properties currently for sale.

Pending - are currently in escrow.

Following these numbers can sometimes give us an indication of market trends. For example, as in most cities within the greater Bay Area, there has been a trend coming from a very strong "seller's" market in the summer of 2005, and going to a more "normal" market at the beginning of 2007. The trend shows the relationship between inventories and the number of buyers. Simply put, this follows the laws of supply and demand. Last summer there were fewer homes for sale with many buyers. Now we have more homes for sale with less buyers.

Another indicator for markets would be to look at an area's Months Supply of inventory, (homes that are for sale compared with the number of homes sold over the past year).

For El Cerrito, we have gone from a 1 months supply during the summer of 2005 to as much as 3 months in October of 2006.