Let’s have another look at our monthly sales histogram.<\/p>\n
After flattening out somewhat between November and December the sales distribution curve became much steeper in January as sales above $300,000 fell off dramatically. In December the mode (i.e. the bucket with the most sales) for non-distressed sales was at $350,000 to $400,000, but in January the mode fell all the way down to the $250,000 to $300,000 bucket.<\/p>\n
Based on what I’ve been seeing in the market since the start of the year, I still expect the mode to shift toward the expensive ranges as we head into spring.<\/p>\n
To generate the chart below, I took all the sales data for single-family homes sold in King, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties from the beginning of 2010 through the end of January. Since my data download puts late-reported sales into the month that the sale actually took place rather than in the month they were reported<\/a>, there is a slight difference in the number of sales I’m counting vs. what the NWMLS reports each month.<\/p>\n By default the chart shows just King County sales in January. Use the controls below to scroll through different months, or to see what the mix looks like for Snohomish or Pierce County. I’ve also added color-coding and controls to separate out “non-distressed” sales from the sales of bank-owned homes and short sales.<\/p>\n