Unit sales of residential properties were down again in May, by 25% from 2008. The rest of the story is that the number of new listings coming on the market  in May was down by 19% from last year. This resulted in a May sales to new listings ratio of 58%, which historically is a good number. The number of active residential listings at the end of May was almost identical to last year. Although sales have been consistently lower year to date, the number of active listings is not higher than last year.

So the current real estate market conditions are: typical number of listings from which to choose, no upward pressure on residential housing prices and lower monthly payments due to mortgage interest rates at historically low levels. In a nutshell, a balanced market that slightly favours buyers.