{"id":1944,"date":"2008-05-14T10:56:15","date_gmt":"2008-05-14T17:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?p=1944"},"modified":"2008-05-14T15:36:45","modified_gmt":"2008-05-14T22:36:45","slug":"wcrer-housing-market-improving-for-buyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/14\/wcrer-housing-market-improving-for-buyers\/","title":{"rendered":"WCRER: Housing Market Improving for Buyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest quarterly housing market snapshot<\/a> from the Washington Center for Real Estate Research<\/a> (WCRER) was released yesterday, and as expected, the news continues to get better for home buyers. Since we’re talking about January through March, there are no surprises here for anyone that has been following the NWMLS data and the Case-Shiller index.<\/p>\n

The only actual “news” in the report is the latest update to the WCRER’s affordability index, which now stands at 76.6 in King County, up from 72.4 in the fourth quarter of 2007, and up over 10 points from the third quarter trough of 64.7. Of course that’s still far short of the 100+ average of 1994-2004.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/a> and P-I<\/a> both printed stories on the report today. Here are a few quotes.<\/p>\n

Seattle Times<\/strong>
\n“During softer markets, those households purchasing homes are finding bargains in the marketplace, which allows them to buy more home for the money,” said Glenn Crellin, research-center director.<\/p>\n

“The total amount spent may be increasing, but the quality is also increasing, and the median masks some potential price weakness.”<\/p>\n

Affordability is still a problem. The average King County buyer had just 76.6 percent of the income necessary to buy the average house, the center found. First-time buyers had just 42.7 percent.<\/p>\n

Seattle P-I<\/strong>
\n“Despite national reports which suggest that no homes are being sold, a sales rate of nearly 98,000 units (statewide) is similar to the number of sales that prevailed 10 years ago,” a statement accompanying the report said. Although Washington’s year-to-year sales drop was a bit bigger than the nationwide decline, “the state’s markets remained more robust than many areas in the West.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let me reiterate a point we’ve tried to make here in the past: falling home prices is a good thing<\/strong>. When the reports have data that show dropping prices and a slowing market, that is the exact opposite<\/em> of “doom and gloom.”<\/p>\n

(Housing Market Snapshot, WCRER<\/a>, 05.2008<\/em>)
\n(Elizabeth Rhodes, Seattle Times<\/a>, 05.14.2008<\/em>)
\n(Aubrey Cohen, Seattle P-I<\/a>, 05.13.2008<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest quarterly housing market snapshot from the Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) was released yesterday, and as expected, the news continues to get better for home buyers. Since we’re talking about January through March, there are no surprises here for anyone that has been following the NWMLS data and the Case-Shiller index….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[198],"tags":[28,1116],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-affordability","tag-wcrer"],"yoast_head":"\nWCRER: Housing Market Improving for Buyers \u2022 Seattle Bubble<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/14\/wcrer-housing-market-improving-for-buyers\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"WCRER: Housing Market Improving for Buyers \u2022 Seattle Bubble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The latest quarterly housing market snapshot from the Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) was released yesterday, and as expected, the news continues to get better for home buyers. 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