
We can attribute to a few things, not the least of which is the First Time Home buyer Credit. We can also attribute it to pent up buyers' demand and lower market prices.
Let's look at how our Inventory changed:

Months of Inventory tell us if all we had is what is on the market RIGHT NOW,
And buyers kept buying at the rate they are CURRENTLY BUYING,
Then it would take 10.5 months to use up all the inventory, for instance, according to January�s figure.
You can see it was coasting along 7-8 months thru the summer and then dropped into the 6 month range in December.
This means it is LESS OF A BUYER'S MARKET. So if you have been sitting on the "Oh-Should-I-list-My- House-or-Not-Fence", it might be a good time to jump off!