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September Stats Preview: Better Late than Never Edition

Posted on October 10, 2011 by The Tim

All righty, it may be ten days into Ocotober already, but that’s not going to stop me from posting our regular stats “preview,” because I just like to see the data presented in the simple bar chart format of this series. 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:

King County Warranty Deeds

Up from a year ago by about twenty percent, which is right in line with NWMLS-reported sales. Note that this year’s steady slope down after June is much more normal than last year’s sheer dropoff.

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 vanilla sales as the Warranty Deed only data we have in King County.

Snohomish County Deeds

The data in Snohomish is a bit more noisy, but deeds still marked a year-over-year bump.

Next, here’s Notices of Trustee Sale, which are an indication of the number of homes currently in the foreclosure process:

King County Notices of Trustee Sale

Snohomish County Notices of Trustee Sale

A pretty significant drop both month-to-month and year-over-year in both counties. I wonder if that’s finally the result of the new foreclosure red tape legislation passed in Olympia a few months back. The dropoff is much too sudden to be natural.

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.”

King County Trustee Deeds

Another decline in repossessions, with September marking the second-lowest point of the year.

Lastly, here’s an update of the inventory charts, updated with the inventory data from the NWMLS.

King County SFH Active Listings

Snohomish County SFH Active Listings

2011 has not been the best year for selection, that’s for sure.

Stay tuned later this month a for more detailed look at each of these metrics as the “official” data is released from various sources.

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Foreclosures Dropped Like a Rock in September

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