The national media just reported yesterday that home sales rose for the first time in seven months, but that prices dropped 8.2% from one year ago.

That is so OLD NEWS! The media sells bad news obviously.

What I want to know is – what’s happening NOW in our local real estate market of Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo? A leading indicator for real estate sales and pricing is “pendings” – homes that have just gone into escrow. That’s about as current a snapshot of market conditions locally as you can get.

So I jumped on our MLS and compared Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo home sales and average asking price (per square foot) for the first 24 days of February to the first 24 days of March. Is this statistically precise? Of course not – that’s why it’s a snapshot.

Are local real estate prices “plunging”? Are home sales “plummeting”? Follow our monthly stats and then you decide! In the first week of April, we’ll have a complete market statistics report for March.