RealEstateEconomyWatch.com

Sales are typically slow in winter, but this January is proving especially sluggish for luxury homes even though sales for all existing homes have increased through the last three months of 2011.

Average days on market for properties over half a million averaged 222 days last week and has risen every week since August when DOM was at a year-low of 100 days, according to the latest monthly data from the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. After falling since early July, inventories rose last week, reaching 23,416 homes in the ILHM market profile.

Thirty percent of listed properties have had a price decrease and even though the balance between supply and demand improved slightly in the first two weeks of the year, new listings slightly exceeded absorptions. Median price at $1,097,660 and median asking price per square foot at 333 were unchanged.

Top ten markets with the longest average days on market are Miami (308 days), Chicago (301), Detroit (271), Phoenix (264), New York (261), Orlando (253), Raleigh-Durham (252), Philadelphia (242), Charlotte (228) and Denver (226). Properties are moving fastest in Sacramento/Tahoe (173), San Diego (176) and Washington (176).

Overall existing-home sales rose 5.0 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.61 million from a downwardly revised 4.39 million in November, and are 3.6 percent higher than the 4.45 million-unit level in December 2010. The estimates from the National Association of Realtors are based on completed transactions from multiple listing services that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops.