January is behind us, so let’s have a look at our monthly 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 snapshot of all the data as far back as my historical information goes, with the latest, high, and low values highlighted for each series:
Listings were flat to slightly down between December and January, opening the year on a slow note. Meanwhile, sales continued to slump, coming in below last year’s levels in both King and Snohomish. Foreclosures were at half of last year’s level.
Next, let’s look at total home sales as measured by the number of “Warranty Deeds” filed with King County:
Sales in King County fell 29 percent between December and January (in 2013 they fell 34 percent over the same period), and were down 1.9 percent year-over-year.
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 17 percent month-over-month and were down 11.3 percent from January 2013.
Next, here’s Notices of Trustee Sale, which are an indication of the number of homes currently in the foreclosure process:
Foreclosures in both counties were down about 50 percent from a year ago. Month-over-month foreclosures increased in Snohomish and fell in King. King was down 55 percent from last year, and Snohomish fell 50 percent.
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 shot up between December and January, but were still down 12 percent from a year earlier.
Lastly, here’s an update of the inventory charts, updated with the inventory data from the NWMLS.
Inventory slipped between December and January, but came in above last year’s level in both counties.
Stay tuned later this month a for more detailed look at each of these metrics as the “official” data is released from various sources.