With November now behind us, 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 dipped considerably in both counties. Sales fell by over twenty percent month-over-month, but were up slightly year-over-year in King and down in Snohomish. Foreclosure notices declined in both counties, with King County hitting its lowest level in over seven years.
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 23 percent between October and November (in 2013 they also fell 23 percent over the same period), and were up 4 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 21 percent month-over-month (slightly more than the same as the same period last year) and were down 4 percent from November 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 from a year ago yet again, and fell a decent amount month-over-month as well. King was down 50 percent from last year, and Snohomish fell 42 percent. Foreclosure notices in King County hit their lowest level since February 2007. Levels in Snohomish were slightly lower earlier this year than they were in November.
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 18 percent from a year ago and fell month-over-month as well.
Lastly, here’s an update of the inventory charts, updated with the inventory data from the NWMLS.
Year-over-year inventory continued to drop in King County, and was still up in Snohomish, although the increase in Snohomish was the smallest we’ve seen since listings began rising in August 2013. King is currently down 5 percent from last year, while Snohomish is up 1 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.