March numbers from the NWMLS are available, and I managed to get a bit of a break before I head back from Chicago, so here comes the data.
March King County SFH summary:
March 2007
Active Listings: up 33% YOY
Pending Sales: down 11% YOY
Median Closed Price: $454,950, up 12% YOY
After an unusual YOY increase in February, sales resumed their previous course of down, down, down. This was the second year in a row that March sales were down 11% YOY.
If anyone tries to claim that this year is shaping up “just like any other year,” or that the sales data points any less toward a softening than it has in recent months, they are either in denial or mentally handicapped. Month-to-month inventory jumped 10.42% from February to March, a larger spike between those months than any other year since 2000 (pre-2000 data is not available). February to March sales were up just 14.11%, making this the smallest increase between those months than any year since 2000.
While months of supply is still relatively low, it has increased 49% since March last year, and days on market has increased 33%. Still-increasing median prices are pretty much the only thing that housing bulls have to be happy about.
As is the custom, I have uploaded an updated copy of the Seattle Bubble Spreadsheet that contains the relevant data. The recap NWMLS pdfs are not available yet, but here is the detailed King County data.
Here’s the supply/demand YOY graph:
Here’s the chart of supply and demand raw numbers:
Here’s the graph of YOY percent change in the median sale prices of single-family homes in King County since 1994:
You’ve got a little bit of a recovery last month, with “appreciation” increasing 3 points to 12%. We’ll see what happens the rest of the spring.