Today’s Wall Street Journal had an article dealing with the nation’s inventory of homes for sale and stated that there is currently about a 9 month supply of homes nationally. But Leslie just published yesterday our local real estate MLS data statistics for January and so I was curious about our local inventory levels. How do we fare?

So this morning I jumped into the Ventura MLS and discovered Ventura had about 200 single family homes for sale (excluding beach properties). Looking at Leslie’s data showed that 53 homes sold last month – a 4 month supply.

Oxnard MLS data shows about 375 single family homes on the market this morning and January saw 137 closed escrows – a remarkable inventory of only 2.7 months.

Camarillo MLS data shows about 170 single family homes for sale and January saw 26 homes that closed escrow – about a 6 1/2 month supply.

These numbers show continued strong real estate activity locally. Obviously, it’s the distressed sales (foreclosures and short sales) that have been driving this market, but the silver lining in all this is that it has been bringing the entry level buyer back into the market in droves.