Tag Archive for 'house-prices'

Monthly Market Update Podcast

Published by Louise on October 24, 2005 in Market Update. Closed

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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.

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Higher prices are good news for home sellers

Published by Louise on September 13, 2005 in Signs & Portents. Closed

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) issued its monthly recap of sales figures for the Seattle area and surrounding counties. While the median sales price of a home in King County increased by 17% from August 2004 to August 2005, median sales prices rose even more dramatically in Snohomish, Pierce, and Kitsap Counties (21 – 24%). Low interest rates combined with fewer homes on the market account for the increase in prices. Also noteworthy is the shortened length of time a home stayed on the market - approximately 7 days less than a year ago for all of the counties mentioned above.

What does this all mean? For one thing, it’s an ideal time for sellers (higher prices, shorter time on the market, and lots of demand), but it’s tougher on buyers. Higher prices, no doubt, force many buyers to purchase homes farther and farther away from Seattle, in areas where affordability may not be an issue. But that affordability comes with a different kind of price tag: long commutes mean higher stress, more pollution, and more burden on the infrastructure.

Click here for The Seattle Times summary of the report.

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ShackPrices.com - a powerful new online tool for evaluating comparable prices

Published by Stuart on August 30, 2005 in Reference. Closed

Full Disclosure: ShackPrices.com was created by a friend of ours. We’d think the site was wicked cool even if it hadn’t been.

We’re pleased and honored to be among the first to let you know about a new online tool available to home buyers and sellers in Seattle and King County. ShackPrices.com uses an interactive Google Map to display historical sales data for area homes. The site is still in beta, and the authors warn that the sales data should still be considered “riddled with flaws and inaccuracies,” but the promise of ShackPrices is enormous.

When you first load up the site, you’ll see a map of King County with icons representing houses that have been sold in the area within the last three months. Using the drop-down boxes on the side of the page, you can customize the search criteria to your liking. Once the map has been refreshed, just click on a house icon to display the most recent sales date, the purchase price, and other vital statistics. Links in the dialog bubble also let you view the sales history, or send you off-site for more information about the property and surrounding area.

On the whole, ShackPrices.com’s interface is clean and intuitive, and the design is well thought-out. There are a couple kinks to work out, though. For example, the median price display on the top center of the page is confusing. It seems to reflect the median price of the houses displayed on the map, not necessarily the houses reflected in your search criteria. So if you zoom in on a house, the median price changes, a fact a casual observer might miss.

However, such glitches are to be expected in an early release of a new tool, and the main features of the site work beautifully. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to visit the site and leave the developers some feedback. We’ll be keeping an eye on how the site progresses. We’re sure that, in time, ShackPrices.com will become an indispensable tool for anyone in the market for a home.

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It could be worse…

Published by Louise on July 11, 2005 in Affordability. Closed

If you’re getting discouraged about how much house your money can buy you in Seattle, this might cheer you up: the median home price in California is well above $500,000.

MSNBC takes a look at what half a million bucks can buy you in Seattle and elsewhere around the country.