How bad has the market become? From a unit volume perspective, it is poor, with closings and especially contract acceptance well below a level needed to satisfy the professional participants who just 6 months ago were dealing with extremely high levels of activity.

From a dollar volume perspective, it does not look so bad. Dollar volume was colossal during the first and second quarters and took a big drop during the third quarter. However compared with prior years, dollar volume is still quite impressive, mainly because prices are still very high compared with all prior years.

The chart below shows the peak early this year at almost $6 billion, followed by the plunge during July to September. But it also shows that we remain well over $3 billion

Even now, monthly dollar volume stands at $3.42 billion, which is the third highest total for week 42, beaten only by 2020 and 2021. During the boom of 2003 through 2005 we rarely exceeded $3 billion.

Market insights provided by the Cromford Report.