Our Greater Seattle-Bellevue-Eastside real estate market is continuing to look a lot more solid, with good statistics and even a little good press. We had a late start this Spring while everyone was still justifiably nervous about what was going on with the economy, so maybe we can expect a little stronger Summer/Fall season to make up. People’s confidence seems to be rising, and if the folks who brought us the crashes of ’07 and ’08 will just leave things alone for awhile, we might make a lot of progressJ So here’s the current market overview.
The links below provide a graphical summary of Real Estate Market Statistics for the Seattle/King County area over the past 3+ years, for single-family homes and for condominiums. The volume of residential sales continues to rise, median prices seem to be starting to rise, and the number of homes available in the lower prices ranges is dropping significantly. Months-Supply, a key measure of market health, has (good news) stayed below the magic balance point of 6 months, and the lower price ranges are doing even better. Buyers today are seeing their smorgasbord of choices diminish rapidly, and are going to have to start honing their decision-making skills again. There is quite a bit of good news in terms of number of new purchase transactions completed, and the large Pending backlog discussed a couple of months ago is coming down significantly. Here’s the charts for the current stats: (Required disclaimer: Statistics not compiled or published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service)
Residential Sales Charts Condominium Sales Charts
The number of sales transactions closed was up again in July, now five months running and feeling pretty solid, and continuing above year-ago levels for single-family homes. People are definitely getting off the fence and starting to buy again, and they are flattening the growth in inventory of houses for sale. The Months-Supply measure of residential inventory, i.e. houses for sale, is down dramatically from 6 months ago, and staying down – although that good news is mostly still in the lower part of the price range. The rise in condominium inventory seems to be blunted too, now holding at levels below those of a year ago, and condominium Months-Supply is down nicely as well.
