April’s numbers are telling us something. I guess it’s up to us to figure out what. I’ll need a couple of articles for April’s review. First the numbers-9200 closings!!! Wow, 4th month in a row of increases both Month over Month and same Month-year over year (y over y). Actually we have had same Month-y over y increases for the last 23 months-another indicator of market improvement. With 14,506 in Pending status, this trend should continue for another month or two. Yes, I realize that the tax incentive is going away, but the Pending’s have to close by 6/30 to be eligible for the tax credit. The Pending’s, combined with the 8000+ AWC’s are at record levels.

Probably most of the focus this month will be on prices and where are they going. Prices are bumping along, up 1 month then down the next. April’s price numbers might make news this month because the 12 month average will be up for the first time in a while. What? That’s right even though the month to month are up then down, our Average Sales Price (ASP) is up 8% over April of 2009. But as reporters are prone to do, they may report on April’s ASP being down 3% from 12/09. Median Sales Prices (MSP) are also up-10% same Month y over y; and 1% from 12/09.

Let’s return to the 9200 closings for April. 38% were REO’s and 22% were Short Sales (SS). You can see that the trend-“REO’s decreasing-with SS increasing” will continue by looking at the Pending’s-33% are REO’s and 29% SS; the AWC’s-over 7000 are SS; and even Active Listings where SS make up 27% with REO’s @14%.

The foreclosure numbers will also be making news this month. Initial numbers for April indicate completed foreclosures were down 20% from March’s record numbers. And Pending foreclosure numbers dropped another 2268-the largest drop on record.

Initial numbers are in for March. Yes March madness continues. Number of Closed Escrows for March is 8846, that’s a 16% increase over 3/09 and a 34% increase over 2/10. 2010′s YTD Closed figures show a 19% increase over 2009′s 1st Quarter numbers.

REO sales numbers are continuing to decline as a percentage of sales-39% of Closed; 34% of Pending; and 15% of Active listings. Short Sales on the other hand are increasing with 21% of Closed; 30% of Pending (or 3930); another 6585 in AWC status (89%); and 27% of Active listings.

The other noteworthy item is the number of Pendings and AWC’s. Total Pendings on April 1 are 13,190; and total AWC’s are 7429. That’s an awful lot of property in escrow. Let’s hope the AWC short sales get approved and closed.

I’ll comment on Prices at a later date since my initial review of closed sales found over $25 million dollars in sale price discrepancies.