Is the market turning?

One of the market indicators I track at least once a month is the number of contracts written in the local MLS system. For the last five years, I have been tracking how many times a month a buyer and a seller have agreed on a price. If you've seen the market report in the window at Scott Team Realty you have seen this chart. As of this morning we are only 13 contracts shy of beating April of 2008's total number. This should certainly happen in the next few days. When it does, it will be the first month since August of 2007 where more contracts were written than the same month in the prior year. In a couple months we'll know if this was a fluke or the beginning of a market rebound on the Outer Banks. I have my finger's crossed!