With the final month of 2014 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 inventory hit a new all-time low in King County in December. Meanwhile, sales increased both month-over-month and year-over-year in both counties. Foreclosure notices declined from 2013 in both counties, but increased slightly month-over-month.
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 13 percent between November and December (in 2013 they rose 10 percent over the same period), and were up 7 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 rose 21 percent month-over-month (vs. an 11 percent increase in the same period last year) and were up 5 percent from December 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, but rose slightly month-over-month. King was down 36 percent from last year, and Snohomish fell 27 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 22 percent from a year ago and basically flat month-over-month.
Lastly, here’s an update of the inventory charts, updated with the inventory data from the NWMLS.
Inventory took a massive hit in King County, falling to its lowest level on record. Snohomish county posted its first year-over-year decline in inventory since July 2013. King is currently down 12 percent from last year, while Snohomish is down 5 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.