December Market Watch

December Housing Activity Continues Pattern of Growing Inventory,
Fewer Sales, Higher Prices
KIRKLAND , Wash. (Jan. 5, 2007) – December brought few surprises in housing activity around western Washington as buyers, sellers and members of Northwest Multiple Listing Service turned their attention to holidays. The storyline of recent months continued with brokers reporting growing inventory, fewer sales and rising prices.
In between shopping and severe storms, Northwest MLS notched 5,744 pending sales last month and added 5,357 new listings to inventory. December’s pending sales of single family homes and condominiums (combined) fell 9.8 percent from the same month a year ago. Of those transactions, condo sales improved on year-ago totals, rising 5.3 percent, but single family homes slipped by about 12.5 percent.
At month-end, prospective buyers could choose from 28,307 properties offered for sale across 19 counties. That’s up more than 37 percent from a year ago when there were 20,595 listings system-wide.
Every county has more inventory than 12 months ago – and higher asking prices.
Sales prices also jumped from a year ago. The median price for sales of single family homes and condominiums that closed during December was $315,000, up about 9.4 percent from twelve months ago when the median sales price was $288,000.
For single family homes only (excluding condos) the area-wide sales price was $330,000, up $29,000 (9.6 percent) from a year ago, but a $1,000 less than November’s median sales price.
Condo prices rose more sharply, climbing to $240,000 for last month’s completed transactions. That’s up 14.6 percent from December 2005 when the median selling price was $209,450. In November the area-wide median sales price for condos that sold was $249,900.
In King County, the median sales price for last month’s closed sales of single family homes (only) was $440,000, up about 12 percent from a year ago. Condo prices in King County jumped 21 percent, rising to nearly $270,000 from the year-ago median selling price of about $223,000.