News that hits us where we live.
May 2015 | Demand Triggering Record Pace of Home Sales
Pending sales reached a record high during April, surpassing the year-ago volume by 18.7 percent. Both closed sales and prices also surged last month as the spring market kicked into high gear.
Pierce County experienced a jump of nearly 38 percent in closed sales compared to a year ago, followed by Snohomish County with a 35 percent increase.
Members added 11,495 new listings to inventory during April, but brisk sales kept supply tight and well below the level of a year ago. At the end of April, the MLS reported 18,132 listings of single-family homes and condominiums in its database, a drop of more than 15 percent from the year-ago total of 21,390.
Compared to March, inventory at the end of April improved by 6.6 percent, but pending sales jumped 13.7 percent from the previous month.
Prices on last month's closed sales were up 12.4 percent. In King County, the median price of single-family homes was $480,000. That reflects a gain of 11.5 percent from the year-ago price of $430,500. King County condo prices increased about 8.8 percent from a year ago, rising from $250,000 to $272,000.
Brokers are not worried about another housing bubble despite the limited inventory on the market; this time around there are sufficient safeguards in place to keep a bubble from happening. There is not the overbuilding we saw before, and the buyers are truly qualified for today's mortgages. Both facts suggest we won't have a problem with the oversupply that contributed to the recent downturn. This time the market improvement is built on solid footings.
by Charles Burnett | Sound Realty Group