| Real Estate Market Overview | |
 Our Greater Seattle / Bellevue residential real estate market continues to show strong Closed Sales numbers as the tax credit winds up, especially in the lower and medium price ranges. June numbers for Pending Sales transactions, meaning new contracts, are about the same as in May, but down sharply from April, as we have passed the April 30th cutoff date for the tax credit. That drop off will start showing up in the Closed Sales statistics for July as the tax-credit deals work their way through escrow and financing. Congress has extended the final closing date to help some people who got their contract signed by April 30, but are still hung up in financing issues, etc. If so, that may lengthen the tail-off a little bit, but probably not much.Taking out the tax credit effect, it does look like our summer sales rate will be slower than it was last summer, which is consistent with the rest of the news we are getting about the economy and the weakness of the recovery. Single family home prices continue to look solid, even up a little, but not a statistically significant amount, and inventory continues to rise seasonally, at about the same level as a year ago. The condominium median sales price dropped back a little again, and is now slightly below year-ago levels; condominium inventory continues to rise seasonally, and continues to run a bit above last year’s levels. |
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| Current Market Statistics | |
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The links below provide a graphical summary of Real Estate Market Statistics for the Seattle/Bellevue/King County area over the most recent 3+ years, for single-family homes and for condominiums. You can see clearly in the thumbnails and in the main charts the big jump in closed sales starting in March, which represents the tax-credit boost.
Months Supply is pretty stable for both houses and condos, and is now running below last year’s levels – to under 6 months for houses and a little over 8 months for condos.
Here’s the charts for the current stats through June: (Required disclaimer: Statistics and graphs not compiled, reviewed or verified by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service)
  The new Pending Sales charts for both Single Family Homes and for Condominium Homes continue to show the Tax-Credit Pig working its way through the Pending Python (escrow and financing). The July data will start to be more interesting in terms of near term market direction.
The oddity in last month’s statistics, the dramatic jump in Days on Market in both sets of charts, continues this month. It looks like a data problem to me, perhaps caused by the MLS changeover to a new system. I have asked them to look into it, and will correct the charts if I get new data. But for now, I report it just like I get it. By the way, all of our newsletter articles are posted on our Greater Seattle Homes blog. So if you want to go back and check a previous one again, just click here. Best Regards, Chuck and Diane Veritus Realty Group & RE/MAX Eastside+Metro |
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