local real estate news, statistics, and commentary without the sales spin.
I’d like to introduce a new chart. The “Residential Real Estate Heat Index” is an index I’ve been calculating for a few years, that originally was part of the now-defunct Sound Housing Quarterly newsletter. It rolls changes in the median price, new listings, total inventory, pending sales and closed sales all into a single number to measure the relative “heat” of the market.
Here’s what it looks like for King County single-family homes and condos…
It’s way past time for the monthly reporting roundup, where you can read my wry commentary about the news instead of subjecting yourself to boring rehashes of the NWMLS press release (or in addition to, if that’s what floats your boat).
To kick things off, here’s an excerpt from the NWMLS press release:
Housing market slowdown expected
But prices in most areas are still rising…
September market stats were published by the NWMLS today. Before we get into our monthly stats, here’s a quick look at their press release…
Now that September is in the books, let’s have a look at our monthly stats preview.
Sales were basically flat month-over-month, but still up double-digits from a year ago, while inventory in both counties saw the biggest year-over-year decline in more than two years. Foreclosure notices in both counties bumped up a little month-over-month and year-over-year…
Let’s check out the three price tiers for the Seattle area, as measured by Case-Shiller. Remember, Case-Shiller’s “Seattle” data is based on single-family home repeat sales in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.
All three tiers were up month-over-month yet again in July. However, the gains in all three tiers were much smaller than they have been for the previous few months…