Seattle August 2007 Home Sales
by Real Estate Analyst John Karevoll, October 1, 2007

The Seattle region's housing market continued to fare better than most last month but gravity has definitely returned: Sales fell to the lowest level for an August in five years, with the sharpest declines in the most affordable neighborhoods. Price appreciation continued to wane, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 6,497 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area encompassing King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. That was up 0.5 percent from 6,464 in July but down 23.4 percent from 8,483 in August 2006, according to DataQuick Information Systems of La Jolla, Calif. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.
Last month's sales total was the lowest for an August since 6,045 homes sold in August 2002, and it was 8.5 percent lower than the region's average 7,101 sales during the month of August over the past decade. Last month marked the 15th consecutive month in which regional sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis. The 23.4 percent annual sales decline was the largest for any month since sales fell 25.3 percent in March 2001.
The months-long trend of sales falling harder in lower-cost areas continued. Combined sales in zip codes with a median price below $300,000 dropped 35 percent in August compared with a year ago, while total sales in zips with a $500,000-plus median declined 18.6 percent. The percent of total resale activity occurring in zips with a $500,000-plus median rose to 24.9 percent, up from 22.7 percent a year ago. This analysis was based on resales of detached houses only in zips where at least 25 houses resold in August.
The median price paid for all metro area homes combined in August was $355,950, down 2.5 percent from the record $365,200 median in June. Last month?s median was also about 2.5 percent lower than the $365,000 median in July and was 3.9 percent higher than the $342,700 median in August 2006. Appreciation continues to ratchet down: A year ago the August median rose 13.9 percent on a year-over-year basis. And the last time the median saw a lower annual gain than last month's 3.9 percent increase was back in April 2003, when it rose 3.2 percent.
In August, each of the region's three counties saw its overall median sale price remain higher than a year ago but the annual gains were the lowest in several years, and all of the medians were below peak levels. King County's overall median was $399,950, up 4.7 percent from a year ago; Pierce County's $280,000, up 2.4 percent; and Snohomish's $345,000, up 3 percent.
The recent shift in Seattle and many other U.S. housing markets toward a greater portion of sales occurring outside the most affordable communities puts upward pressure on the median sale price, aside from any appreciation that might be occurring. Therefore, the year-over-year increases in the median are likely overstating the extent to which prices have risen in some areas.
Another gauge of home pricing, the median price paid per square foot for resale single-family (detached) houses, also suggests that appreciation has steadily declined this year. Last month Seattle's regional median per square foot fell to $237, down from a record of $240 reached in June and July. Each of the three county's median per square foot remained above year-ago levels last month but was 1 to 1.8 percent lower than the peak level reached earlier this year.