Full disclosure: The Tim is employed by Redfin.
Last Friday Redfin released their March market data. Here’s an excerpt from the narrative (which I also wrote):
Spring has officially sprung. Spring–when flowers bloom, birds chirp, the sun makes an occasional appearance through brief windows in Seattle’s perpetually grey winter sky, and the real estate market begins to pick up steam.
Let’s see how spring 2011 is shaping up:
- Flowers: check
- Birds: check
- Sunbreaks: check
- Real Estate: um…
As it turns out, the usual spring uptick in new listings and sales still isn’t materializing so far in 2011. What’s the deal? Where are the sellers? Where are the buyers?
…
Our customers are feeling the pain of languishing inventory. “Inventory is a little bit stale,” laments West Seattle Redfin Agent Klaus Gosma. “People are definitely thirsty for some ‘new blood.'”Redfin Ballard Agent Bryan Haynes agrees. “In Ballard we’re seeing two kinds of listings—stale, overpriced homes that end up sitting on the market and well-kept, well-priced homes that quickly attract buyers’ attention.” Sadly, there just aren’t as many of the second kind as buyers would like.
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 March 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 N. Beacon Hill / Mt. Baker (98144), where sales shot up from just 9 in February to 28 in March. King County’s biggest decline was in Central East Bellevue (98007), where sales fell 20% from 10 in February to 8 in March.
Here are the zip codes with the most SFH sales in October in King, Snohomish, Pierce, Thurston, and Kitsap County:
- King: 98042 — 56 sales.
- Snohomish: 98012 — 74 sales.
- Pierce: 98391 — 71 sales.
- Thurston: 98513 — 35 sales.
- Kitsap: 98366 — 34 sales.
Inventory began to show a little life in March, declining month-to-month in 41 King County neighborhoods, flat in 4, and rising in 27. Year-to-year, the picture was less rosy: 12 neighborhoods saw inventory increase, 1 was flat, and the remaining 59 are all lower than a year ago.
The median price fell from a year ago in 46 King County zip codes, and rose in 19. The median price per square foot was down in 55 zip codes and up in just 9.
Anything stand out to you about your neighborhood in this month’s data?