Now that September is in the bag, it’s time for another monthly stats preview. Most of the charts below are based on broad county-wide data that is available through a simple search of King County and Snohomish County public records. If you have additional stats you’d like to see in the preview, drop a line in the comments and I’ll see what I can do.
First up, total home sales as measured by the number of “Warranty Deeds” filed with King County:
Warranty Deeds were dipped about 4% in King County between August and September. Last year Warranty Deeds rose over 7% during the same month. The number of Warranty Deeds filed in September came in lower than any month in 2000-2007. YOY Warranty Deeds were down 22%. Based on this data, I suspect we’ll see NWMLS-reported SFH closed sales for September fall to around 1,250.
Here’s a long-range view of King County Warranty Deeds, to give you a little more context:
Here’s a look at Snohomish County Deeds, but keep in mind that Snohomish County files Warranty Deeds (regular sales) and Trustee Deeds (bank foreclosure repossessions) together under the category of “Deeds (except QCDS),” so this chart is not as good a measure of plain vanillla sales as the Warranty Deed only data we have in King County.
Snohomish County marked another month-to-month increase, but I suspect this is because of an increasing number of Trustee Deeds (bank repossessions) rather than an increase in regular home sales.
Next, here’s Notices of Trustee Sale, which are an indication of the number of homes currently in the foreclosure process:
Snohomish was basically flat, while King posted a 7% month-to-month increase. Both of King and Snohomish are still marking significantly higher levels than a year ago.
Here’s another measure of foreclosures for King County, looking at Trustee Deeds, which is the type of document filed with the county when the bank actually repossesses a house through the trustee auction process. Note that there are other ways for the bank to repossess a house that result in different documents being filed, such as when a borrower “turns in the keys” and files a “Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure.”
Yet another new high in foreclosure repossessions in King County. I just adjusted the vertical scale last month, but it looks like I may have to adjust it again in October if the current rate of increase keeps up.
Lastly, here’s an approximate guess at where the month-end inventory was, based on our sidebar inventory tracker (powered by Estately):
King County looks to be more or less flat over the last three months, while Snohomish is likely to set a new high for the year.
Stay tuned later this month a for more detailed look at each of these metrics as the “official” data is released from various sources.