With so much doom and gloom out there nationally, it’s interesting to see what’s happening locally. A good leading indicator is: How many people actually put their hard earned money on the line and made an offer that was accepted?

Each month, we’ll be watching pending home sales. January shows a decline in 2007 for Camarillo and Ventura, but the February spreadsheet shows very robust gains in Oxnard, strong gains in Ventura, but a decline in Camarillo.

Generally, escrows opened in January are for those folks who’ve maybe been looking over the holidays, thus lower numbers. But after the holidays in January, it appears buyers have been coming into the market. Will the trend continue? We’ll see!