Full disclosure: The Tim is employed by Redfin.
Last Thursday Redfin released their February market data. Here’s an excerpt from the narrative (which I also wrote):
Welcome to Real Estate Bizarro World, where falling supply means falling prices and scarce demand still leads to multiple offer situations. 2011 continues to shape up as an unusual year for the Seattle-area real estate market, with the number of homes for sale in February falling when it should be rising, the number of buyers still near all-time lows, and prices showing persistent signs of weakness.
…
With prices still dropping, buyers are exercising their muscle. “Buyers have a price in their head of what they’re willing to pay for a house, and they’re not willing to budge,” said Michelle. “They want to battle. They go into it looking for a deal and ready to beat people up.”“Buyers are not acquiescing to sellers,” agreed Kevin. “It may be a seller’s market by the numbers, but you need to be careful because buyers are very cautious and risk-averse.”
You can download the full spreadsheet from Redfin here, and as usual, I’m going to map the data here.
In the map below each zip code with enough sales in February 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. There is also a county selector that allows you to narrow, expand, or modify the view to your liking.
Sales volume is still slipping in most places, but continues to rise in a few. The biggest winner in King County was Mercer Island (98040), where sales shot up from just 8 in January to 22 in February. King County’s biggest decline was in Delridge (98126), where sales fell 36% from 11 in January to just 7 in February.
Here are the zip codes with the most SFH sales in October in King, Snohomish, Pierce, Thurston, and Kitsap County:
- King: 98052 — 27 sales.
- Snohomish: 98012 — 39 sales.
- Pierce: 98387 — 32 sales.
- Thurston: 98513 — 29 sales.
- Kitsap: 98312 — 22 sales.
Continuing the odd trend we’ve seen so far in 2011, inventory declined month-to-month in 52 King County neighborhoods, was flat in 3, and rose in 13. Year-to-year, the story was similar: 12 neighborhoods saw inventory increase, 3 were flat, and the remaining 53 are all lower than a year ago.
The median price fell from a year ago in 42 King County zip codes, and rose in 15. The median price per square foot was down in 50 zip codes and up in just 8.
Anything stand out to you about your neighborhood in this month’s data?