Seattle Bubble

A reader suggested that a good way to visualize the current state of the local housing market would be to look at quarterly home sales. Here’s a chart of the total closed SFH sales in King County for every quarter we have data for from the NWMLS, back through 2000:

Click to enlarge
Note that the [...]

[Read more →]

Those of you that have been following King County inventory may have noticed something a little odd about June’s official end-of-month inventory count from the NWMLS. While the number of listings appearing on local home search sites seemed to indicate that June’s inventory would be a few hundred higher than May, the NWMLS statistics [...]

[Read more →]

Let’s talk about interest rates for a while. As we have discussed before, when most people buy a home, they tend to determine how much they will spend based on the monthly payment they can afford. Two components make up your monthly payment when you buy a home: loan amount and interest rate.
A [...]

[Read more →]

Let’s check in on the NWMLS statistics from around the sound.
Here’s where the YOY stats stand for each of the six counties as of June 2008:
King - Price: -4.3% | Listings: +25.4% | Sales: -27.2% | MOS: 6.0
Snohomish - Price: -9.0% | Listings: +8.1% | Sales: -35.0% | MOS: 8.0
Pierce - Price: -6.6% | Listings: [...]

[Read more →]

Foreclosures are still on the rise in Washington State and in the Seattle area, according to the Seattle Times.
Washington state foreclosure filings were up 69 percent last month compared with the previous June and up almost 10 percent from May, as the mortgage meltdown continues despite government and private efforts to help struggling homeowners.
…
There were [...]

[Read more →]

It’s time for NWMLS June statistics.
Here’s the NWMLS press release: Housing Market Becoming More Balanced as Sales Climb to Highest Level in 10 Months.
Here is your summary along with the usual graphs and other updates.
Here’s your King County SFH summary:
June 2008
Active Listings: up 25% YOY
Pending Sales: down 27% YOY
Median Closed Price*: $449,700 - down 4.3% [...]

[Read more →]