The Facebook IPO is expected to mint about 1,000 new millionaires, most of whom live in apartments or small houses in Silicon Valley.

Shares are expected to start trading sometime this spring. SEC rules prohibit employees to sell shares until six months after the shares start trading.

So, expect home buying to pick up in the fall.

If you are a seller, you may want to wait until then.

If you are a buyer, you may want to buy before then.

ABC News spoke of rumors that speculators were buying property near Facebook’s headquarters, hoping to flip it later.

While Facebook is the elephant in the room, LinkedIn went public last May and vested employees were able to sell their stock at the end of November.

Zynga is another local company that went public last year, December. Their employees can start selling stock the end of May.

JANUARY MARKET STATISTICS

Sale of single-family, re-sale homes started the year in a slump. The 556 sales were the lowest monthly total since February 2008. Home sales were down 35.9% from December. Year-over-year, home sales were off 13.1%.

Condo sales were off 38.3% from December, but were up 1.8% year-over-year.

The median price for homes was down 8.5% year-over-year. This is the fifteenth month in a row the median price for homes has been lower than the year before.

The median price for condos was up 1.8% compared to last January.

Inventory of both homes and condos continues to be weak. Home inventory was down 31.1% compared to last January: 1,382 homes actively listed. Condo inventory was down 46.2% year-over-year.

Pending sales of homes rose slightly from December, but were off 6.8% year-over-year. Condo pending sales were up 1.8% year-over-year.

Please remember, while statistics are nice, they will not determine the price you pay or get for a property. That will come down to you and the buyer or seller.