How’s Seattle real estate doing so far this year?

Paula Chambers — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:51:37 +0000

2012 is off to a swift start with February pending sales up over 27% from 2011. Available inventory is down 22.5% from last year, fueling an uptick in multiple offers, particularly in entry-level single-family homes.

County-wide distressed homes (both short sales and bank REO’s) represent about 1/3rd of home sales. The robo-signing lawsuit recently settled will now allow banks to return those homes to the market that had been taken off during the legal action.

Most analysts predict 2012 to be a transitional year, and the local statistics so far are bearing that out. In King County both January and February levels of pending sales have equaled that of 2007, which was the year of transition from the wild seller’s market into a more balanced market (until the mortgage melt-down). Buyers are jumping in to leverage the lower home prices and still amazing interest rates. Home affordability has increased, and first-time buyers who previously could only afford condos now can buy a single family home.

View the last two years Seattle home prices and East Side home prices on my website along with other charts. There’s good energy in real estate again! Call if I can answer any of your questions or get you data on a particular neighborhood of interest.

Cities Links

Paula Chambers — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:56:37 +0000

North Bend