• Under $250,000 is a seller’s market.
• Between $250k and $500k, the market is balanced in most areas
• The strongest seller’s markets are those in the center of the valley.  The further out you go, the weaker the market is, presenting best opportunities for buyers.

From The Cromford report:

Here are the basic ARMLS numbers for December 1, 2015 relative to December 1, 2014 for all areas & types:

• Active Listings (excluding UCB): 21,493 versus 24,593 last year – down 12.6% – but up 0.3% from 21,439 last month
• Pending Listings: 6,147 versus 5,497 last year – up 11.8% – and up 5.6% from 5,821 last monthUnder Contract Listings (including Pending & UCB): 9,552 versus 8,331 last year – up 14.7% – and up 5.8% from 9,026 last month
• Monthly Sales: 5,241 versus 4,971 last year – up 5.4% – and down 18.7% from 6,450 last month
• Monthly Average Sales Price per Sq. Ft.: $136.26 versus $128.92 last year – up 6.0% – and up 2.0% from $133.93 last month
• Monthly Median Sales Price: $208,900 versus $193,300 last year – up 8.1% – but down 1.9% from $213,000 last month

The above numbers demonstrate significant weakness in closed sales compared with the number of under contract listings. This is further evidence that the TRID procedures are extending escrow durations for financed transactions. Listings under contract counts are higher and closed sales count are lower than we would have expected without TRID. The effect is larger than we saw at the beginning of November, probably of the order of 500 listings carried over into December instead of being closed at the end of November. Since cash transactions are unaffected by TRID, these are closing more quickly and this tends to pulled the median sales price lower.

The average price per sq. ft. has moved up a healthy 2% in the last month and 6% since last year, both of which look encouraging for the market as a whole.

Sales were up more than 5% from November last year, but there were 6% more working days in November this year (18 versus 17 last year), so this is not impressive,

In summary we would say that there are no strong positive or negative trends right now. Supply remains far too low at the lower end of the market and demand is unusually weak at the very top end. However this is compensated by stronger demand between $500,000 and $1,500,000.

We would expect the next 31 days to see a drop in supply, an increase in closings and further strength in pricing. However the next real test of demand will be in early February.