Time for the monthly reporting roundup, where I read all the local paper rehashes of the NWMLS press release so you don’t have to.
Here’s a link to this month’s NWMLS press release: Move-up buyers, extended/expanded tax credits boost home sales; Northwest MLS brokers expect momentum to continue in 2010
“This winter will not be ‘business as usual’ for the housing market,” said Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate. “Thanks to historically low interest rates, adjusted home prices, and the passage of the extended/expanded tax credit, we are getting a running start on the New Year,” he added.
There’s nothing like getting a good running start!
Click below for this month’s roundup of real estate sales spin.
Eric Pryne, Seattle Times: Seattle-area home sales increase, but a decline might be in offing
With the boost from the federal first-time homebuyers’ tax credit likely to wane, at least for the next few months, some observers say sales volumes could start sliding again this winter.
“We could be looking at a second dip in housing,” said Glenn Crellin, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at Washington State University. “I hope I’m wrong.”
Hey, this guy Crellin may be onto something.
Aubrey Cohen, Seattle P-I: House sales up 81% in November, prices down in King County
King County house sales continued to surge in November, as buyers rushed to close deals before a tax-credit deadline, while prices remained lower than a year earlier, according to a new report.
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Pat Grimm, designated broker at Windermere Real Estate/Capitol Hill, Inc. and a member of the listing service’s board of directors, said in a listing service news release that move-up buyers have added to the rebound started by first-time buyers.“The shift was made away from a buyer’s market early this year into a balanced market, and in some areas close to the city core, it’s a seller’s market,” he said.
Aubrey’s back (at least for one article), but there’s really not much to this piece beyond a dry listing of data from the NWMLS press release.
Mike Benbow, Everett Herald: Snohomish County home sales up; prices fall
Snohomish County home sales were strong in November, but that didn’t stop prices from continuing to fall.
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“First-time buyers led the market recovery,” said Pat Grimm a Seattle Windermere broker. “Move-up buyers have definitely picked up the baton.”Congress and the Obama administration have extended the $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers and added a $6,500 tax boost for existing homeowners who buy a new primary residence.
Real estate agents are hoping both groups can be prodded to keep buying homes through the winter to tide them over until spring.
Who cares if you don’t have a job, or already have a load of debt. Just get out there and buy, buy, buy!
Kelly Kearsley, Tacoma News Tribune: Pierce County home sales stay strong
Pierce County home sales remain up from a year ago as homebuyers continue to take advantage of the federal tax credit.
“It absolutely has made a difference in how we are finishing out this year and getting ready for next year,” said Marianne Barkman, managing broker and vice president of John L. Scott Real Estate’s Puyallup office.
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Many in the real estate industry hope that the tax credit will continue to encourage sales through the first quarter of next year. But few are anticipating that home prices will dramatically increase in the spring.“I’m not sure that there is going to be a huge increase as we go forward,” Barkman said. “It’s a time to be very matter of fact and realistic about the market.”
Wow, after just two years of declining home prices, some agents are finally getting it through your heads that consistently lying to your potential customers may not be the best way to build a business!
Rolf Boone, The Olympian: Agents say increased business should continue next year
The median sales price of a Thurston County home fell to the lowest point of the year in November, down 6.23 percent since January 2009 and down 8.87 percent since November 2008, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service data released Thursday.
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Although mortgage interest rates remain low and tax-credit homebuyer incentives recently were extended, South Sound real-estate professionals say they aren’t sure when home prices will rise again.Real-estate agent Mark Kitabayashi thinks there won’t be price appreciation until the foreclosure problem bottoms out, and another wave of foreclosures could be on the way, he said. Thurston County Realtors Association president Mark Steves agreed Thursday, saying another batch of adjustable-rate mortgages, in which mortgage interest rates adjust higher, could come in 2010 or 2011.
“It’s going to take a while,” Steves said about a return to price appreciation.
Shockingly, I couldn’t find a bottom call in any of this month’s pieces.
(Eric Pryne, Seattle Times, 12.03.2009)
(Eric Pryne, Seattle Times, 12.04.2009)
(Aubrey Cohen, Seattle P-I, 12.03.2009)
(Mike Benbow, Everett Herald, 12.04.2009)
(Kelly Kearsley, Tacoma News Tribune, 12.04.2009)
(Rolf Boone, Olympian, 12.04.2009)