Climbing into a car during the dead of winter can be brutal. The seats are cold. The steering wheel is cold. Most importantly, the air temperature feels as if it is below ZERO, even in sunny Southern California. Initially, after turning on the heat, frigid air blows through the vents. After driving down the street, the air quickly warms, ending the harsh reality of winter’s chill. Similarly, after hitting its slowest time of the year during the Holiday Market, housing quickly heats up and transitions to the Winter Market where demand surges higher, the inventory slowly grows, and market times drop.

Regardless of the economic situation, without fail housing revs its enormous economic engine and the market heats up during the Winter Market, from mid-January to mid-March. Last year the inventory of available homes hit a record low and by mid-January, there were only 1,080 homes on the market. By mid-March, the start of the Spring Market, the inventory had grown to 1,556, a small addition of 476 homes, yet a 44% rise from January.  Demand, a snapshot of the number of new escrows over the prior month, rocketed higher and increased from 1,426 pending sales at the start of the Winter Market to 2,284 in March, up 60%, or an additional 860. The Expected Market Time, the time between coming on the market and opening escrow, decreased from an insanely hot 23 days in January to an even hotter 20 days by spring.