Market Recovery: Slow and Sane - Green Lake Loop

By Molly Cartwright, Realtor, Cooper Jacobs Real Estate, Molly@CooperJacobs.com, 206-841-6800, on November 9th, 2012

Last month?s housing inventory around western Washington fell to its lowest level since February 2006, according to statistics from Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The MLS report covering 21 counties also shows year-over-year prices on closed sales area-wide increased by double-digits for the first time since March 2007.

Brokers reported 6,000 closed sales of single family homes and condominiums last month, outperforming the year-ago volume by 1,236 transaction for an increase of nearly 26 percent. Last month?s activity in the areas served by Northwest MLS marked a rebound from September when members reported 5,535 completed transaction.

Prices on October?s sales were up 10.4 percent compared to twelve months ago. The median price for last month?s closed sales of single family homes and condominiums (combined) was $251,625; a year ago the figure was $228,000.? The last time the multiple listing service reported an area-wide double digit hike in prices was March 2007 (up 11.3 percent).

Prices for single family homes, which accounted for more than 86 percent of October?s sales, rose more than 11 percent, while prices for condominiums jumped 16.6 percent.

The brisk sales activity is creating imbalanced markets in some Northwest MLS counties. Area-wide there is less than a three month supply of homes based on the pace of pending sales when matched with inventory. (Many industry experts consider 5-to-6 months as the indicator of a balanced market.)

At the end of October, five counties in the MLS system have less than four months of supply:

County	Active Listings	Pending Sales	Months Supply
King	5,437	3,400	?? 1.60
Snohomish	1,960	1,325	?? 1.48
Pierce	3,539	1,383	?? 2.56
Thurston	1,218	320	?? 3.81
Clark	213	54	?? 3.94
NWMLS total (21 counties)	23,115	8,312	?? 2.78

Source: http://www.greenlakeloop.com/2012/11/09/market-recovery-slow-and-sane/

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