As we enter the 2nd quarter of 2010, its time to look back at the 1st quarter sales in Cranford, NJ for the sales numbers, and to see which way the market is trending as we go into the seasonal peak selling season of real estate.

1st Quarter 2010

Closed Sales: 29

Avg Sales Price: 387,648

Avg Days on Market: 85

Avg Sale Price/List Price: 96.7%

Current Pending Sales: 28

Month's Supply: 4.7 months of inventory. This means that if no new homes came on the market, it would take about 4.7 months for all homes to be sold at the current pace of contract signings.

Most Real Estate economists consider a 6 month supply to be a balanced market, with anything less than 6 considered a seller's market. You guessed it. That's why we had SO many multiple offer scenarios in Cranford. Right at this moment, there are more buyers than sellers. This could change in the coming months, but the 1st quarter of 2010 proved to be a good time to sell your home if you priced it reasonably.

What does this mean? Essentially, the first quarter substantially outperformed last year's first quarter, as there were only 11 closed sales in Q1 2009, as we were at what most would argue the most challenging point of the recession.

With the first time homebuyer tax credit set to expire April 30, I expect that the Q2 numbers will exceed the Q1 numbers, and I also expect a slight increase in prices.