Down: The median price of homes – both residential and condominium – in Thurston and Pierce counties.
Down: The number of homes actively listed for sale.
Down: The number of new listings.
Up: The number of home sales pending.
So much for the first month of 2012.
The Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which represents more then 22,000 real estate professionals in 21 Washington counties, on Monday reported data for January.
“Given that we lost a week with some of the worst weather in 16 years, the numbers are astoundingly good,” said Ken Anderson, an MLS director and designated broker at Coldwell Banker Evergreen Olympic Realty in Olympia.
Anderson said the numbers reported Monday are no longer tied to “the artificial stimulus of various tax credits and incentives that date to 2009.”
“The improvement in the numbers show that the market is healing itself and standing on its own.”
Among the numbers:
• The median price of homes in Thurston County fell 4.27 percent over the year from $214,950 to $205,782. In Pierce County, the price fell 12.53 percent from $200,000 to $174,950. At the median sale price, half the homes sold for more than that amount, and half sold for less.
• In King County, the median price was down 16.04 percent, dipping from $333,500 to $280,000 over the year. Closed sales were up 13.5 percent while pending sales rose 15.09 percent.
Prices throughout the region ranged from $13,000, for a manufactured home in Sultan, to $26.8 million for a Mercer Island waterfront estate.
Overall, the available inventory of homes and condominiums is down nearly 20 percent in the region compared to last year, MLS said in its monthly news release. Brokers added 6,666 new listings across the 21 counties, with single-family homes comprising some 85 percent of the additions.
The lower number of new listings joining the market came as the result of several factors, said J. Lennox Scott, CEO and chairman of John L. Scott Real Estate.
He noted the number of potential sellers whose mortgages are underwater, as well as sellers who are waiting for home prices to increase.
C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535 c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com