Due to technical difficulties, I wasn’t able to get onto the local listings database for the last few weeks. In that time, a lot has happened. For example, the following video was posted—-allowing you, me, and plenty of others the opportunity to avoid reading a long housing report that inevitably (at least in my case) will freeze our computers as it attempts to open. Without further adieu, here’s a video summarizing findings from the first quarter of 2009.

Or read the highlights below.

• Across the region, the number of homes sold rose 15 percent, with the largest increase in sales in Loudoun, Prince William and Frederick County, where unit volume was up 40 percent from a year ago.
• The average homes price in Washington declined 22.3 percent from a year ago, with steeper declines in the outer suburbs.
• In some areas, lower prices mean that the cost of owning is now comparable to the cost of renting a home.
• Close in homes in the core are selling in 96 days. Homes in the outer suburbs are taking 107 days. Homes in the inner suburbs are taking 117 days.
• Homes sold in the first quarter of 2009 closed for 89.9 percent of list price, the lowest since before 2003.