According to the Wall Street Journal, and data compiled by ZipRealty Inc., the number of homes for sale in 18 of our major metropolitan areas increased 6.5 percent in March over the previous month this year. The biggest inventory increases being in the metro areas of Los Angeles (12.8 percent), San Francisco (12.2 percent) and Washington, D.C. (9.4 percent). This is a much larger jump than the modest average increase of 1.7 percent we have seen over the last 22 years, according to Credit Suisse Group. Are we starting to see the national market turn around? Don’t get too excited. Typically the supply starts to increase slightly in March, the start of spring, when many families seek new homes so they can move during summer vacations. However, it is likely that this early rise is stemming from the realization that it will take much longer to find buyers than it has in the past.This rise in inventory has caused prices to level out or even drop slightly, which will likely cause the national median existing home price to drop slightly to a predicted $220,300 in 2007. Locally it is a whole different story; inventory is certainly not increasing nor are prices dropping. According to the local MLS the upper Roaring Fork Valley (Aspen to Basalt) has a total of 662 residential units listed as available, 309 of which are listed under $1 million and only 10 of these are single-family units. Downvalley the story is much the same. From Carbondale to Rifle there are only 286 residential units listed available, only half of which are under $ 1/2 million. Garfield CountyGarfield County again followed in Pitkin’s footsteps reporting a dollar volume increase compared to last March of 6 percent. Total dollar volume was at $93.1 million compared to $87.8 million in 2006. Garfield County, unlike Pitkin, did show an increase in number of transactions, although slight, with a total of 237 compared to last year’s 227.