Seattle Real Estate Talk

Guest: Karen Lavallee

Active Listings, number of days on the market, median prices – being a good real estate consumer means knowing the numbers – which ones will give you edge and which ones are meaningless.

I spoke late last week with Karen Lavallee, Managing Broker of Windermere West Seattle. Karen shared her insights on Seattle’s current real estate market in light of the monthly market update (16kb PDF) recently published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. We discussed what buyers and sellers need to know about these current figures. Click here to listen to the full podcast.

Here are a few of the points that Karen and I touched on.

• The number of houses for sale and the number of houses sold indicates a picture of supply and demand.
• More demand for houses than number of houses for sale creates a “sellers market.” This is what we’re experiencing here in Seattle.
• Less demand for homes than number of houses for sale creates a “buyer’s market.”
• Buyers and sellers need to be aware of different strategies to use to work within those environments.
• Median price is the midline between lowest-priced home and highest-priced home (this is different than “average price”). Low interest rates plus high demand puts pressure on price. This accounts somewhat for the higher than usual increase in median price this past year.
• Number of days on the market - we’re seeing many, but not all, homes selling in the first week on the market and with multiple offers.
• Higher-priced homes tend to stay on the market longer. Although the average number of days on the market was 33 days for September 2005, it doesn’t mean buyers have 33 days to make a decision to buy a home.
• Agents can help buyers by researching what the number of days on the market is in a particular price range within specific neighborhoods.

You can reach Karen Lavallee at the Windermere West Seattle office at 206-935-7200, or by email at lavallee@windermere.com.

For the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) September 2005 King County Breakouts click here (16kb PDF).

For more real estate news from the NWMLS click here.

Technorati Tags: House Prices, Market Update, Podcast, Karen Lavallee

 

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