Real Estate Market Conditions

May 2012 Edmonds Real Estate Market Conditions

May 15, 2012

As this is being posted the inventory continues to drop and it is more common to have multiple offers on a new listing than not. The market is heating up to the point that if you are relying on the standard or default criteria (180 days) for listing and sold properties you are using the wrong data. Example: for a 4 bedroom home with 2.5 in Edmonds that sold between November-January the averages show that the sale price went up over $10.60 per Square foot. On a 2,500 SQFT home that comes out to an increase of 7.1% or $401.425.00compared to $375,700.00. Even the homes that have been on the market for longer than 6 months are starting to move. Another factor is that the % of sale price to list price has also gone up by more than 1% which is a difference of $4,000.

Averages

Square Footage

Cost Per SQFT

List Price

Sold Price

Sale Price compared to List Price

Mid November

Thru January

2537

150.28

$387,512

$373,203

96.57%

Mid February Thru May

2601

160.96

&410,153

$401,425

97.92%

April 2012 Edmonds Real Estate Market Conditions

April 10, 2012

I have been warning my clients for a number of months now that they should be expecting to see the market change from a buyers’ market to a sellers’ market. In addition that they could anticipate some appreciation will start to be seen in the next few months. In my January post my forecast was that we were either at or very near the bottom. In the last few months the market has become a strong sellers’ market. Before then to have multiple offers on a property was rare now it is rare not to see multiple offers come in. Speaking with another broker today they mentioned that within 2 hours of a new listing coming on market they had 4 offers and some had escalation clauses that would push the price above the listed price. The chart below shows who is in control of the market as well as a comparison to last year at this time. The Red areas refer to the seller’s being in control, Yellow is a neutral/transitional market and Green equals a Buyer’s market. Bottom line is that if you were waiting for the bottom of the market you may have missed it. Over 30% of the closed sales last year were to all cash buyer’s indication that the investors think that prices are very good at this level. Also inventory is now under 2 month supply in the majority of all the areas shown on the map.

March 2012 Edmonds Real Estate Market Conditions

March 20, 2012

Inventory in Edmond continues to drop and price per SQ FT is holding. During the last month the inventory has continued to drop and being in a multiple offer situation is not a surprise anymore. The slight increase in interest rates seems to have motivated some buyers to start looking for a new home. The projected forecast for economy for North King and South Snohomish Counties is that by the end of the year we will starting seeing some slight appreciation in home values. Last year 30% of sales were for all cash which indicates that investors are also in the market now. The chart below show that the inventory levels have continued to drop and compared to Feb 2011 we have 38% less inventory, the pending sales are up by 16.6% and the closed sales are up 23%. I have also heard that the Shadow Inventory will slow down somewhat because we are in an election year. That means that we will not have the banks marketing their inventory as fast as in the recent past. The chart is based on homes priced between $300,000 and $500,000 in zip codes 98020 & 98026.

February 2012 Edmonds Real Estate Market Conditions

February 11, 2012

The next few months are generally considered the best months to buyers sell in the Puget Sound region. You’ll see a number of new listings coming on the market and activity for buyers is also higher. Currently in Edmonds within the price range from 300,000 to 500,000 there are 18 listings with an average price of $354,491. The number of listings that are pending is 12. These are the 2 numbers that we used to calculate months of inventory. If you divide active listings by pending sales you arrive at that number. This case the numbers 1.5 in other words we only have 1 ½ months of inventory. Also of some interest is that for the active listings the original list price was 358,000 but currently with price changes and reductions that current list priced now is still 98.75 of the original listing price. This is telling us that there’s not much pressure for prices to come down at present time. The last number that also paints a picture is that of the 25 properties that were sold in the last six months in this area the average market time was just 50 days. I hope that this will help your decision whether to buyers sell. If you have other specific questions you can e-mail me at marketwatch@northwestrealestate.com I will be happy to answer any of your questions.

January 2012 Edmonds Real Estate Market Conditions

January 16, 2012

Market in Edmonds is in the transaction phase. Here is the supporting information and explanations. Consider that the price range of $300,000 thru $550,000 leads the market as an overall advance indicator. Here is what that is telling us now:

· The average market time for the 90 properties sold is just 63 days.

· The number of Active Listings in this price range has dropped to 52.

· As I write this report there are also 21 Listings that are Pending.

The Months of Inventory is now down to Active Listings/Pending= 2.47 months this is in spite of the fact that the holidays are one of the slower times of the year for buyers to be purchasing. You can look for the purchase to accelerate over the next few months and the prices should be holding. If you are looking for a great time to buy this might be close to the bottom. The factors that have come into play are that the interest rate is hovering around 4% there is still close to 2 months inventory and prices have not started increasing.