Quick note:
According to a search of closed SFH sales in the last month on Redfin, just 763 homes have sold in King County during that time (as of 9:00 AM this morning). I assume a relatively large number of sales may be back-logged from the long holiday weekend, but even if two hundred homes close today and tomorrow, we’ll still be below 1,000 for the first time since the market went into a deep freeze in late 2008.
At this point, unless sales double from their current count, we’re pretty much guaranteed that this November will see the second-lowest volume of closed sales in the last 10 years (which is as far back as the reliable data goes).
Pretty much exactly as I predicted last year (before the credit was irresponsibly extended), very few new buyers were brought into the market by the tax credit. Instead, all the credit did was boost 2009 / early 2010’s numbers at the expense of late 2010 / early 2011.
If that isn’t $22 billion well-spent, then my name isn’t Marty McFly.