In March 2008, the D.C. metro area real estate market experienced some positive changes, suggesting a slow recovery in 2008.  The number of properties sold increased last month in all counties; leading to a slightly higher overall absorption rate for the area.
Absorption Rate - 1.3 out of every 10 homes for sale sold last month
↔	The average absorption rate increased again from 12.3% in February to 12.6% in March.  The demand for homes is keeping pace with the new inventory; however, the total inventory remains high relative to demand.  I expect the absorption rate to continue to steadily decrease from March until the end of year, as it did in 2007. The entire D.C metro area is still in a strong buyer's market that will continue the rest the year. The absorption rate must reach 25% to be declared a balanced real estate market.
Days on Market - The homes that sold last month were on the market for an average of 102 days
↔	The average time to sell a home remained close to the same (102 days – 8% drop) in March.  It still takes over 3 months to sell a property in the current market.  Montgomery county (106 days – 12% drop) and D.C (80 days – 9% drop) experienced the biggest drops in March. All other counties tracked experienced slightly lower days on market averages in March.
Sales Price - The average home sold for $3,000 less last month
↔	The average sales prices in Montgomery county ($511,525 – 9.7% drop) and Baltimore county ($284,696 – 9.9% drop) decreased in March.  The average sales prices in D.C. ($535,645 – 5.5% jump) and Arlington county ($548,365 – 7.9% jump) increased last month.  The average sales prices in P.G and Fairfax counties remained close to same in March. I expect to see property values increase steadily from March to June 2008.
Number of Sales - The average number of home sales increased last month
↑	The number of sales increased 24% in March. I expect that we "hit the bottom" in January on this market indicator and will now experience an increase in the number of sales until June 2008.  The sale count in all counties tracked experienced an increase in the number of sales last month.