With July 2014 now in the history books, 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 6 percent from a year ago in King County and over 32 percent in Snohomish. Sales flipped again from a 7 percent year-over-year gains in King in June to a 5 percent year-over-year loss in July. Sales in Snohomish fell 9 compared to last year. 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 inched up 0.6 percent between June and July (in 2013 they rose 13 percent over the same period), and were down 5 percent year-over-year, resuming the trend seen between November and May.
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 were flat month-over-month (compared to a gain of 9 percent over the same period last year) and were down 9 percent from July 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 once again down considerably from a year ago, but Month-over-month foreclosures increased a bit in both counties. King was down 16 percent from last year, and Snohomish fell 38 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 48 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.
Year-over-year inventory growth was basically unchanged between June and July. King is currently up 6 percent from last year, while Snohomish is up 32 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.