Real Estate Market Overview:
Our real estate market is continuing to look solid, with good statistics and increasing good press. There is quite a bit of good news in terms of number of new purchase transactions completed, and Days-On-Market (the average time it takes to sell a home) continues its welcome decline. However, some of that buying has been in response to the federal First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, which is still at this point scheduled to expire December 1. Then we’ll see how much the move-up buyer demand picks up in the next stage of our recovery.
Current Market Statistics:
The links below provide a graphical summary of Real Estate Market Statistics for the Seattle/Bellevue/King County area over the most recent 2+ years, for single-family homes and for condominiums. The volume of residential sales is now seasonally topping and will slow a bit through the Fall and Winter months, median prices seem to be holding steady, and the number of homes available is staying well below 2007 and 2008 levels. Months-Supply, a key measure of market health, continues to stay slightly below the magic balance point of 6 months, and the lower price ranges are doing even better. The large Pending-Sale backlog is continuing to run pretty high, indicating a lot of transactions hung up in escrow on financing and short-sale issues. Here’s the charts for the current stats: (Required disclaimer: Statistics not compiled, reviewed or verified by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service)
Residential Sales Charts Condominium Sales Charts
The number of sales transactions closed for single-family homes continued to run above 2008 levels, now four months running and feeling pretty solid, and continuing above year-ago levels. Inventory of houses for sale continues to run significantly below year-ago levels, but the picture is not so rosy for condominiums. It is true that the condominium inventory level is staying below a year ago, but Sales are still well below a year ago, and Months Supply is remaining stubbornly high for most of the market. We’ll do more analysis on the condo market in a following letter.