Is sales volume slowing?
I had over 400 properties in my Redfin Favorites list on June 26 -- have since added some -- and since that date my daily updates have included not a single sale. I am well versed in the law of averages, but has anyone else with access even to a very subjective metric seen this kind of result recently? It's out of whack with what I'd been seeing prior to that date, and if this truly is the season for buying houses, I wonder why I'm not seeing that.
I'm just mildly curious and have nothing in the balance -- please don't devote significant time to a reply. Thanks.
I'm just mildly curious and have nothing in the balance -- please don't devote significant time to a reply. Thanks.
Comments
The best I can do is offer my subjective man-on-the-street view.
Realtors are telling me that it is very quiet out there. Medium to top level producers are not writing deals, listings are not selling and buyers are not buying.
I'm teaching a class tomorrow. I'll check in with the Realtors and then post an update tomorrow afternoon.
Houses are no longer allowed to be listed as STI on the NWMLS, so they may simply be disappearing from Redfin without notification.
Some stuff is selling, that's for sure. Just yesterday a friend of ours moved into his new place in Wallingford.
This is anecdotal evidence, but I too have heard of someone moving.
Of course, 3 years ago it seemed like 1 out of 10 coworkers were in the process of moving that summer, so considering I know more coworkers now and can only think of one who is moving...
Great class today, full house, lots of fun. The topic was, "How to become and REO agent."
When I asked the question, "What's going on out there? Is it slow? Busy?" The entire room became extremely quiet and nobody said anything. I shut my mouth and waited....knowing someone would finally break the ice. Then they started talking and said yes, it's slow. Homes are selling IF they are priced agressively. Listing agents said they are having to sit down with their sellers and have heart-to-heart conversations about price drops.
Somebody ran statistics that showed upwards of 60% of all listings in Pierce County were short sales. With the new Distressed Property Law, agents are having to disclose the nature of the transaction up front so they said they are seeing far more short sales in King County including places such as Bellevue and Redmond.
Hope that helps!
However REO bulk buyers are picking up large deals recently.
I'm now trying to figure out how best to corral my Redfin data in light of the new no-STI-display rule and I have a few questions that maybe someone here can answer, somewhat OT (sorry):
1. How long after a house is sold does it generally take for sale data -- rather than "No Data Available" -- to show up on Redfin? I think I am seeing that there have been an inordinate number of listings pulled over this time period, but I can't be sure yet.
2. What would be the cause of listing data/sale data never appearing on Redfin? Our friend who bought in Wallingford sent out his new address, so naturally I wanted to be nosy -- but I can't find a thing, not even evidence that his house was on the market.
Also yesterday word of a friend of a friend who has also just bought a house. These are all smart people, not spendthrifts, etc. -- I said I am inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt, assume they have done their economic homework, taken a cold analytical look at their individual purchases and negotiated hard hence are scooping up great bargains. My boyfriend said No, I think everyone still assumes that real estate will go up 10% a year forever.
http://www.redfin.com/WA/Seattle/3206-S ... ome/140480 --
that shows up on my Favorites list as Off Market, but when I searched on the address to see whether it had been sold or pulled, the same old Active listing came up. Any idea what this indicates? Or is there a known glitch in the Redfin system?
Estately just had a number of solds I was following recored on June 30th that were all sold some time in May.