Now that March is done, let’s look at our regular monthly “preview” charts. Here’s the summary for March: Sales look to be a bit lower than last year, even as the spring bump has begun. Listings are still struggling to make gains. Foreclosures are still nearly non-existent.
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:
If sales start falling off, we could see some hope for buyers later in 2018, but right now it’s too early to make a call like that.
Next, let’s look at total home sales as measured by the number of “Warranty Deeds” filed with King County:
Sales in King County increased thirty-one percent between February and March (a year ago they rose thirty-nine percent over the same period), and were down six 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 increased thirty-three percent month-over-month (vs. a thirty-nine percent increase in the same period last year) and were down five percent from a year earlier.
Next, here’s Notices of Trustee Sale, which are an indication of the number of homes currently in the foreclosure process:
Foreclosure notices in King County were down fifty percent from a year ago and Snohomish County foreclosure notices were down forty-two percent from last year. The monthly number of foreclosures never really historically goes much lower than it has been over the last year or so.
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 seventy-five percent from a year ago. The last time we saw levels like what we’ve seen in the last few months was fifteen years ago.
Lastly, here’s an update of the inventory charts, updated with previous months’ inventory data from the NWMLS.
Inventory is increasing for spring, up twenty-three percent month-over-month, but is still down two percent year-over-year in King County.
In Snohomish County listings were up fourteen percent month-over-month and down thirteen percent year-over-year.
Note that most of the charts above 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.
Stay tuned later this month a for more detailed look at each of these metrics as the “official” data is released from various sources.