Columbus and Central Ohio Multiple Listing Service announced its November 2008 numbers on Monday and they continued to slump.

The sold listings were off by more-than 26% while the average sales price was down by 16%.

Of all the numbers, one of the most interesting is that the days on market has fallen by 18% - or 21 days - compared to November last year.

Year-to-date, the numbers continue to be off our pace from 2007. However, they are not nearly as extreme as Novembers. Average sales price is down less than 5% while the number of sold listings is down by just over 13%.

Why the sharp drop in November?

• Calm of the storm is one idea. We saw such a rapid adjustment to the market that the majority of buyer's may have been on the sideline in October and November - which doesn't bode well for the December numbers as well.
• Another idea, is that the presidential election had a major impact. People were more interested in talking about politics and the fate of the United States presidential campaign than buying and selling real estate.

What does that mean for the future?

Well, in December I think the numbers will continue to be sharply off compared to 2007. But, the current interest rates appear to be creating an up-tick in the market. If, and a big if, buyer confidence begins to return then we could see a bounce back in the first quarter of 2009.