Rising inventory of unsold homes points to a cooling of the market

Rising inventory of unsold homes points to a cooling of the market: "
Kathleen Pender
Sunday, April 9, 2006

In another sign that the real estate market is cooling -- but not collapsing -- the inventory of unsold homes in California is roughly double what it was a year ago.
Inventory is calculated by dividing the number of homes for sale in a region by the number of homes that have closed escrow in the past month. It tells you how many months it would take hypothetically to sell all the homes on the market.
Statewide, the inventory of unsold single-family homes in February was 6.7 months, up from 3.2 months in February of last year.

'For the better part of 2005, it was in the 3- to 3.5-month range,' says Robert Kleinhenz, deputy chief economist with the California Association of Realtors. 'We saw a rather dramatic increase at the state level beginning in January of this year and continuing in February.'

Inventories are generally higher in Southern than in Northern California. "