Following up on the Olympia market is today’s story in The Olympian: Home sales surge in August
He noted that there were 1,038 homes listed for sale last month, a 9 percent increase from 955 listings a year ago. Also, he said, homes that sold last month were listed an average of 45 days, 8 days longer than in July.
“That’s due to a lot of new construction and reflects new developments available in the marketplace,” [Jerry] Wilkins [manager of the Olympia MLS] said.
While these are both sure signs of a slowdown, that didn’t stop prices from continuing to make record gains.
The region’s $237,900 median sales price in August set a record that was 26 percent higher than the $189,500 median price of a year ago.
However, if the increasing inventory is a trend that continues, prices will eventually slow down with it. How long will that take and will it really happen? Who knows.
(Jim Szymanski, The Olympian, 09.07.2005)