Edgewood, WA Real Estate Blog » Statistics

More short sale stats for Fife, Milton, Edgewood & Federal Way, WA

Lee Mason, The Masters Realty Group LLC — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:07:59 +0000

Continuing on the subject of my previous post, here’s a look at the market composition of organic versus short sales versus bank REOs (Real Estate Owned – foreclosures or deed in lieu of foreclosures):

(click to enlarge)

So about 3/4 organic listings, 1/5 short sales, and about one in twenty are bank REOs.

Now take a look at the closed transactions over the past 30 days (from 10/14/09):

(click to enlarge)

Well, you can sure see where the action is - bank REOs. Only about one in twenty listings are REOs, but they disproportionately represented almost one in three of the total sales.

Surprisingly, it’s the organic sales that are most underrepresented. The proportion of short sale listings to short sale closings isn’t that different. And these are actual closings, not pendings. As you can see in my previous post, the majority of short sales that close go pending multiple times.

January 2009 Real Estate Statistics for Edgewood, WA and Surrounding Cities

Lee Mason, The Masters Realty Group LLC — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:43:47 +0000

Statistics for January 2009 for Edgewood and surrounding cities have just been updated.

Notwithstanding some of the recent comments of the usual real estate spokespeople, the market price levels continue to deteriorate. Remember the data is not seasonally adjusted. Never the less, the trend is pretty easy to discern.

Peak to trough median prices widened in Janary and inventory levels continue to climb.

I’m not sure what happened in Northeast Tacoma last month but there were only 4 sales reported. That really skewed the inventory figure for that area. With so little data, one cannot rule out an anomaly rather than a trend.

New statistics for Edgewood, WA and surrounding cities real estate market

Lee Mason, The Masters Realty Group LLC — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:14:04 +0000

Statistics for September 2008 for Edgewood and surrounding cities have just been updated.

Things appear to be changing a bit. However, keep in mind the data is not seasonally adjusted (although you can see what was happening last year at this time).

Inventory seems to be coming down, at least for King County. Prices continue to drift downward. Some of this drift may be due to the disparity of rates between conforming and jumbo (conforming and non-conforming) loans.

I have not compiled pending data below. The mainstream media is ballyhooing an increase in pending sales (an improving market) which generally reflects the most recent trends (0-30 days back versus actual solds which reflects what happened 30-60 days ago). But keep in mind NWMLS changed the way pendings are tabulated. Houses that were sold subject to inspection were categorized as actives. Now they are classified as pendings subject to inspection. So the method of classification has changed. We’ll need to see how much effect this has by correlating pendings to solds in the future.

Never the less, it remains a buyer’s market.

Real Estate Statistics for July 2008 for Edgewood and Surrounding Cities

Lee Mason, The Masters Realty Group LLC — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:30:15 +0000

Statistics for July 2008 for Edgewood and surrounding cities have just been updated.

More of the same – median prices drifting downward. Still looking for a trend of increasing sales which would portend a “bottom”. It just isn’t there. Lacking an increase in sales, months of inventory is “stuck” at a high level.

Keep in mind figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Pierce County appears to be doing somewhat worse than King county.

With Federal Way located right on the border of King and Pierce County, it will be interesting to see what effect Weyerhauser’s reduction of employees will have. It can’t be good.

Statistics for June 2008 for Edgewood and surrounding cities have just been posted.

Lee Mason, The Masters Realty Group LLC — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:50:02 +0000

Most areas show a marginal improvement in markets, at least from a seller’s perspective. Keep in mind closed sales are contracts that were written 45-60 days ago when the seasonal selling period typically peaks.

Federal Way (areas 100 and 110) and NE Tacoma (areas 94-95) are exceptions.

All areas ( based on inventory levels) remain decidedly a buyer’s market.

May 2008 real estate statistics for Edgewood and surrounding cities

Lee Mason, The Masters Realty Group LLC — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:48:31 +0000

The numbers are interesting this month. As you would expect for this time of year, the number of listings is increasing for both King and Pierce Counties. Yet the number of absolute sales is decreasing. Buyers are holding back. Interestingly days on market for King county are drifting downward while they are drifting upward for Pierce County.

Months of inventory are up for both counties. This is the number of months it would take to sell all the homes on the market at that months sales rate assuming no new homes came on the market. Of course we know additional homes are always coming on the market. A four to six month inventory is considered neutral – neither a buyer’s nor a seller’s market. As you can see, we definitely have a buyer’s market in both King and Pierce Counties.

Keep in mind that “Solds” generally represent activity 45-60 days ago whereas “Pendings” (sold but not closed) represent activity 0-30 days back.

Inventory levels for local areas (Edgewood, Milton, Fife, Sumner, Federal Way & NE Tacoma) really shot up in May as more people put their homes on the market and overall sales activity decreased.

Median sales prices, while all over the board month to month, are down from a year ago.

Where’s the Action in Milton Home Sales?

Lee Mason, The Masters Realty Group LLC — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:17:51 +0000

We’re at month’s end and after reviewing May’s Edgewood statistics I’ve moved on to home sales in Milton. It’s always much more interesting to look at activity by price range by single area as opposed to overall stats for multiple area groupings the MLS publishes if you want the nitty-gritty on a specific area. Here’s the data for May in NWMLS area 71 which includes Milton, WA.

Click to enlarge

As you can see, not a lot of sales or pendings compared to the number of listings. As a rule of thumb, figure the sales went pending 30 to 60 days ago, and the pendings occured in the last 30 days. Pendings are a more immediate reflection of what’s going on although you have to be careful as a given a home could be pending more than one month, whereas a closed only happens once.

There’s not much separating any of the price ranges. The two active listings in the under $200K price range are a “mistake” (probably intentional to get more views) as they are actually condos that should be listed as condos.

The following shows continuous days on market (CDOM). It’s much more representative of the condition of the market than simple days on market. Days on market (DOM) is how many days the home has been on the market under the current listing – but a home could have been listed many times by one or more agents. CDOM only resets to zero when a property has been off the market for at least 90 days.

As you can see, homes in the $300K-349K price range have been sitting a long, long time. They’ve probably been listed and relisted by multiple times by multiple agents.

Click to enlarge

Note, however, the CDOM for the 2 homes that sold – only 24 days.

You can just feel the “stickyness” of home prices. Sellers are hanging on to yesterdays prices, and buyers are waiting for them to drop. I usually calculate inventory numbers (how many months of inventory given the current rate of sales assuming no new homes come onto the market). But with no sales in all but one category…

Of course one can consider an overall average for Milton and say there were 55 homes on the market during the period and 2 sold, so the inventory is 55/2 = 27.5 months or just over 2 years. That’s pretty ugly.

But two homes did sell and its not rocket science why. It comes back to whether a seller wants to list their home or sell it.

Where’s the Action in Edgewood Home Sales?

Lee Mason, The Masters Realty Group LLC — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:03:19 +0000

I know it’s not the end of the month, but I was generating statistics for a listing I was working on. From the chart below you can see which price ranges have what little action there is.

Click on image to enlarge.

Keep in mind a lot of closings occur at the end of the month and this chart only shows May 1-29, so the number of closings will probably change. Never the less, there’s not that many pending that could close.

Here you can see the average continuous days on market for both active and sold listings. There’s no bars where there is no data, and averages mean little when you only have a sample or two.

Click on image to enlarge.

I usually calculate inventory numbers, but with so few sales or pendings, it probably wouldn’t mean a whole lot.