Market Update January 2010

Last month showed more signs of a bright future for months to come. Of the seven cities in Washington reviewed all showed tremendous year over year growth.

Auburn, WA has had a 5.1% increase in sold properties in the last twelve months, including an 86% increase of homes in escrow. The inventory has decreased by 25.5% in the last year and the average price of a sold home in Auburn is $261,000.

Renton, WA has seen more significant gains. Sales have skyrocketed 72.3% and homes in escrow have increased by 84.1%. The average price of homes in Renton, WA is $346,000. Inventory has also dropped 24%.

Bellevue, WA has seen the largest increases in sales and homes in escrow the last month. There are 214.8% more homes in escrow and 180% more homes closed in December 2009 then there was in December 2008. Inventory has decreased 22.7% in Bellevue. The average sold home is $622,000.

Seattle, WA has also seen an increase in sales, approximately 28.8% from December 2008 to December 2009 stats. The pending homes have increased 88.8% and inventory has decreased 21.9%. The average sale price in Seattle, WA for the month of December 2009 was $480,000.

Puyallup, WA has a current sales average of $228,000. Inventory has dipped 19.4%. Sales have showed steady growth of 11.5%, and pending are also above the 80% at 85.9%.

Lastly Tacoma, WA is revealing the lowest average closed price of $189,000 for a single family home. Inventory has decreased 20.2%, sales have jumped 63.1% and homes in escrow have increased by 60.8%.

The statistics show that a lot more homes are selling. The reason for the gigantic increases in pending, or homes in escrow, is due to the flooding of short sale inventory in Washington. These homes are listed below market, get offers signed by sellers, then sit in escrow until the bank approves or counters the contract price. Hence, the large amount of homes in escrow. These short sale systems used by banks are heavily regulated and should improve through out the first part of 2010.

Starbucks Trivia Question:

What is the scientific name for Alabama’s State insect? Good luck!

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

I meant to get to this last week, but the day it came out, I was mostly drunk (my bday), and I somehow missed it: “Despite some tentative signs of recovery, the U.S. housing market remains vulnerable to further price drops—especially in areas where large numbers of mortgages are headed toward foreclosure over the next few years. The Wall Street Journal’s quarterly survey of housing-market data in 28 major metro areas shows sharp drops in the number of homes listed for sale across the countr

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

The Seattle Times has a must-read piece on Washington Mutual today which reveals a lot of the fine detail on how the company was run and what led to its demise (hat tip calculated Risk). As with many of the other busted financial giants like Northern Rock and Lehman Brothers, indications that something was amiss were apparent long before their ultimate demise. However, in an environment of easy money and lax regulatory standards those signs were overlooked as share prices kept rising. Here

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

This first chart illustrates and confirms that Bonney Lake is still a bedroom community for families, with the owners vs. renter ratio way above the national level.

Here you see that Bonney Lake still has a good mix of newer homes and older homes. The rebuilding of neighborhoods has slowed but new construction has been down all across the state. We are now seeing good signs with the “number of starts” (builders breaking ground) increasing.

This also re-confirms that Bonney Lake is the city where people can get exceptional housing, away from the city under 300K.

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

The party is ending. Pierce County Sheriff Marine Services Unit deputies will begin “educating” boaters about the new “underway only” rule on Fairweather Cove – also known as Party Cove – in north Lake Tapps that goes into effect this weekend. “We are not going to write tickets right away,” said Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer. “We will have signs made and putting information out there about the new rule.” The new rule bans motorized vessels from anchoring, drifting or tying together in

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed