It has been a while since we checked up on stats outside of the King/Snohomish core, so let’s update our “Around the Sound” statistics for Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston, Island, Skagit, and Whatcom counties.
This month’s story in a nutshell: Bad news for buyers, great news for sellers. It’s pretty much a terrible time to buy and an excellent time to sell no matter what part of the Puget Sound area you’re in.
First up, a summary table:
| April 2015 | King | Snohomish | Pierce | Kitsap | Thurston | Island | Skagit | Whatcom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median Price | $480,000 | $359,975 | $249,950 | $256,750 | $234,000 | $250,000 | $241,900 | $289,000 |
| Price YOY | 11.5% | 12.5% | 13.6% | 8.1% | 7.3% | -9.1% | 7.5% | 12.7% |
| Active Listings | 3,003 | 1,644 | 2,622 | 807 | 1,086 | 515 | 496 | 896 |
| Listings YOY | -15.2% | -16.3% | -16.2% | -30.9% | -4.1% | -23.5% | -28.0% | -21.8% |
| Closed Sales | 2,352 | 1,024 | 1,228 | 328 | 332 | 131 | 165 | 251 |
| Sales YOY | 16.7% | 34.0% | 39.4% | 21.5% | 23.9% | 42.4% | 20.4% | 47.6% |
| Months of Supply | 1.3 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 3.6 |
Next let’s take a look at median prices in April compared to a year earlier. Prices were up from a year ago everywhere but Island County. Gains ranged from as low as 7 percent in Thurston to as high as 14 percent in Pierce.
The number of listings on the market fell year-over-year everywhere. The biggest loser of listings was Kitsap County, where listings fell 31 percent from a year ago. The smallest decrease was in Thurston, where listings were down 4 percent from last year.
Closed sales increased in April compared to a year earlier in all eight counties. The biggest gains were in Island County, which saw 42 percent more sales than last April. The smallest gains were in King County, where sales increased “just” 17 percent.
Here’s a chart showing months of supply this April and last April. The market was less balanced than a year ago, skewing more toward sellers in all eight counties.
To close things out, here’s a chart comparing April’s median price to the peak price in each county. Everybody is still down from the peak, with drops ranging between just 0.2 percent in King County to 29 percent in Island County.
If I had been thinking of buying a home this year, I would probably shelf those plans in this kind of market. In my opinion it is just not worth it for buyers right now.
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.