At this point in the year we should be gearing up for the spring market, but we just aren't feeling it yet. The consensus is we are a month behind other years. Like most of this year we are struggling with low inventories, a situation that has many puzzled. The pent up demand is evident. Walk into any open house on the weekend and see if you can find empty space on the floor to leave your shoes. The overall number of sales is beginning to perk up, but the action is still far below where it was at this time last year.

The number of new listings continued to contract last week but that could be because of the family day holiday. 25 percent fewer listings week over week created increased competition with 35 percent more sold properties and of those, 60 percent sold over the asking price. The price range between $700K and $1.5K was the most active last week with 68 percent more properties sold and of those 63 percent sold over asking.

A similar market exists in the resale condo sector. Listings were off last week by 15 percent while sales were up 21 percent week over week. And of those sales 47 percent sold at or above the asking price. The condo market has been traditionally reserved for first time buyers, but as freehold home ownership becomes less affordable we expect even more activity in the condo market.