Now that the month of June is behind us, let’s have a look at our stats preview. 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, here’s the summary snapshot of all the data as far back as my historical information goes, with the latest, high, and low values highlighted for each series:
Summary: Inventory increased for the third consecutive month, while sales dipped slightly. Meanwhile, foreclosure notices dipped into negative year-over-year territory for the first time in a year.
Next, let’s look at total home sales as measured by the number of “Warranty Deeds” filed with King County:
Sales in King County dropped 4.5% from May to June, and were up 15.5% year-over-year, the smallest gain in 15 months. Just as inventory begins to recover, it looks like sales may be moderating.
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.
Deeds in Snohomish fell 7.1% month-over-month and rose 26.1% from June 2012.
Next, here’s Notices of Trustee Sale, which are an indication of the number of homes currently in the foreclosure process:
Foreclosures in King County fell again, dropping below last year’s level just as I predicted earlier this year. Foreclosures saw a similar decline in Snohomish County.
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.”
Trustee Deeds were basically flat from a year ago. Since Deeds are on a delay from Notices, I expect Deeds will fall to year-over-year negative by November or December.
Lastly, here’s an update of the inventory charts, updated with the inventory data from the NWMLS.
Three months of increases in a row. Last year King County inventory rose just 1.0% between May and June. This year it gained 10.9% over the same period. Snohomish County wasn’t as dramatic: last year listings were flat, this year they were up 1.2%. The year-over-year drop in King County inventory was at its smallest level in 2 years.
Stay tuned later this month a for more detailed look at each of these metrics as the “official” data is released from various sources.