Full disclosure: The Tim is employed by Redfin.
Now that it’s almost February, we should probably make some time to check out Redfin’s December market data. Here’s an excerpt from the narrative:
With buyers hitting the streets, and inventory scarce it stands to reason that sellers who list their homes for sale now, instead of waiting until spring, have the advantage of less competition. “I have quite a few buyers just waiting for an increase in inventory, which seems stale at the moment,” said Robin McCue, a Seattle Redfin agent, “Sellers should consider listing earlier than later in the season, as there are a lot of buyers just waiting for good homes.”
I guess it depends on what your definition of “a lot of buyers” is. There are definitely buyers waiting for good inventory (which has been quite stale lately), but I don’t know that I’d say there are a lot of buyers just yet.
You can download the full spreadsheet from Redfin here, and as usual, I’m going to map the data here. New in this month’s spreadsheet: Pending sales and 13-month trend tables! Check it out, we’re pretty proud of these sweet new features.
In the map below each zip code with enough sales in December is shown as a dot, with the size of the dot determined by the number of sales in that zip code in the month. Each dot is color-coded based on whichever measure you select below the map. You can view the month-over-month or year-over-year changes in inventory, sales, median prices, or median prices per square foot for single-family homes, condos, or townhouses. There is also a county selector that allows you to narrow, expand, or modify the geographic view to your liking.
Redfin’s data shows a bump in sales month-to-month, but not as big as what the NWMLS claimed. Year-over-year, the biggest winner in King County this month was E. Auburn (98002), which saw sales shoot up 133% from 6 in December 2009 to 14 in December 2010. King County’s biggest decline was in Lake City / Northgate (98125), where sales fell 42% from 26 a year ago to 15 this year. 39 zip codes had decreasing sales volumes YOY, 3 were flat, and 24 saw an increase. Month-to-month, 14 zip codes fell, 2 were flat, and 46 increased.
Here are the zip codes with the most SFH sales in December in King, Snohomish, Pierce, Thurston, and Kitsap County:
- King: 98033 — 42 sales.
- Snohomish: 98012 — 47 sales.
- Pierce: 98387 — 55 sales.
- Thurston: 98513 — 38 sales.
- Kitsap: 98366 — 34 sales.
Inventory declined month-to-month in most neighborhoods. Year-to-year, about a third of neighborhoods gained inventory, while two thirds were down from 2009.
The median price fell from a year ago in 41 King County zip codes, and rose in 25. The median price per square foot was down in 45 zip codes, flat in one, and up in 20.
Anything stand out to you about your neighborhood in this month’s data?