It’s time for us to check up on stats outside of the King/Snohomish core with our “Around the Sound” statistics for Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston, Island, Skagit, and Whatcom counties.
If there is certain data you would like to see or ways you would like to see the data presented differently, drop a comment below and let me know.
This month’s story in a nutshell: Moderation. For the most part, the movement in prices, listings, and sales all edged closer to flat. Price gains, sales drops, and inventory increases all slowed.
First up, a summary table:
| August 2014 | King | Snohomish | Pierce | Kitsap | Thurston | Island | Skagit | Whatcom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median Price | $437,000 | $330,000 | $239,950 | $245,000 | $239,972 | $276,450 | $248,800 | $275,000 |
| Price YOY | 1.6% | 6.5% | 4.3% | -4.3% | 1.0% | 10.6% | 8.6% | 6.6% |
| Active Listings | 4,967 | 2,720 | 3,967 | 1,484 | 1,372 | 766 | 796 | 1,436 |
| Listings YOY | 1.4% | 20.4% | 12.5% | 1.2% | 4.9% | -13.0% | -7.0% | -1.0% |
| Closed Sales | 2,384 | 977 | 1,176 | 375 | 364 | 145 | 165 | 274 |
| Sales YOY | -6.9% | 2.0% | 1.6% | 1.6% | 5.5% | -5.8% | 1.2% | 11.4% |
| Months of Supply | 2.1 | 2.8 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 3.8 | 5.3 | 4.8 | 5.2 |
Next let’s take a look at median prices in August compared to a year earlier. Prices were up from a year ago everywhere but Kitsap County, which was down 4 percent. Gains ranged from as low as 1 percent in Thurston to as high as 11 percent in Island.
The number of listings grew year-over-year in the close-in counties, and fell in Island, Skagit, and Whatcom counties. The biggest gainer by far was still Snohomish County at +20 percent (its smallest gain since last August). Pierce County also saw double-digit gains in inventory again.
Closed sales fell in August compared to a year earlier in King and Island, but edged up everywhere else. Whatcom saw the biggest sales gain, up 11 percent from last year.
Here’s a chart showing months of supply this August and last August. The market was more balanced than a year ago in King, Snohomish, and Pierce, more or less the same as a year ago in Kitsap and Thurston, and less balanced than a year ago in Island, Skagit, and Whatcom.
To close things out, here’s a chart comparing August’s median price to the peak price in each county. Everybody is still down from the peak, with drops ranging between just 9 percent in King County to 21 percent in Island County.
At this point I think it’s safe to say we won’t be seeing anything all that surprising through the rest of this year. Prices will probably stagnate while listings and sales take their usual seasonal slide into winter.