Now that May is over, 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 are up 10 percent from a year ago in King County and over 40 percent in Snohomish. Sales once again fell from last year’s levels in both counties, with a far larger drop seen in Snohomish than in King. Foreclosure starts and completions both continued to drop from last year’s levels.
Next, let’s look at total home sales as measured by the number of “Warranty Deeds” filed with King County:
Sales in King County rose 10 percent between April and May (in 2013 they rose 15 percent over the same period), but were down 5.2 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 3.7 percent month-over-month and were down 20 percent from May 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 are still down considerably from a year ago. Month-over-month foreclosures fell in King County and were flat in Snohomish. King was down 36 percent from last year, and Snohomish fell 54 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 were down 39 percent from a year ago, and fell month-over-month.
Lastly, here’s an update of the inventory charts, updated with the inventory data from the NWMLS.
May saw the largest month-over-month gain in inventory (in percentage terms) for as far back as our data goes (2000). The 16.9 percent gain in one month was enough to push year-over-year inventory gains into double digits. King is currently up 10 percent from last year, while Snohomish is up 42 percent.
Stay tuned later this month a for more detailed look at each of these metrics as the “official” data is released from various sources.