Pro Teck Valuation: Home Listings Drop 21 Percent Nationwide

Nationwide, the number of homes listed for sale has fallen 21 percent from a year ago, according to ""Pro Teck Valuation Services"":http://www.proteckservices.com/' May ""Home Value Forecast"":http://www.homevalueforecast.com/press/may-2012-update-real-estate-inventory-trends-and-price-home-value-forecast-monthly-market-update/.

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Also, the forecast reported Months of Remaining Inventory (MRI) is at 6.3 months, which is the lowest level since 2006.

A strong market will have 0 to 5 months of inventory, a balanced market 6 to 10 months, and a soft market will have 11 to 15 months.

From 2002 to 2005, when the housing market was booming, the national MRI was at or below 5 months.

As listings and MRI decline, some of the metro areas that fell the hardest may be recovering now.

The report noted that closely watched areas such as Phoenix, Miami, Atlanta, Orlando, and Riverside-San Bernardino are high on the list in terms of seeing the greatest declines in listings. As for areas with low MRI, Phoenix, San Jose, and Seattle topped the list.

Using a broad base of indicators, including MRI, median prices, number of active listings, sales percent change, and other indicators, HomeValueForecast.com ranked the 10 best and worst performing core based statistical areas(CBSAs).

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Commenting on top performing CBSAs, Michael Sklarz, principal of collateral analytics and contributing author to HomeValueForecast.com, noted that ""Rustic Belt"" states such as Michigan and Illinois are seeing positive trends as the number of their active listings decline over the past year.

""This has led to most of these markets having balanced or tight markets based on their Months of Remaining Inventory values,"" he said.

When observing trends for the worst performing CBSAs, Sklarz pointed out that a high percentage are located in the Northeast and all locations have double digit months of remaining inventory.

""Also, prices in these metros have held up much better since the market peak in 2005-2006 compared to the current top ranked markets,"" said Sklarz. ""We believe that the relative rankings in the bottom ranked metros are not offering the same bargains â€" in terms of compelling prices and high rental yields â€" as the top ranked ones.""

*Top CBSAs*

# Boise City, Nampa, Idaho
# Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas
# Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Michigan
# West Palm Beach-Boca Rotan-Boynton Beach, Florida
# Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Michigan
# Peoria, Illinois
# San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
# Salt Lake City, Utah
# Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, Florida
# Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas-Missouri

*Bottom CBSAs*

# Winston-Salem, North Carolina
# Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Virgina-North Carolina
# New York-White Plains-Wayne, New York-New Jersey
# Norwich-New London, Connecticut
# Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut
# Newark-Union, New Jersey-Pennsylvania
# Duluth, Minnesota-Wisconsin
# Nassau-Suffolk, New York
# Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, New York
# New Haven-Milford, Connecticut