Northwest MLS brokers report nearly $20 billion in sales for 2012 outgaining prior year by $3.2 billion

Kirkland, WA, January 17, 2013 – Members of Northwest Multiple Listing Service tallied 64,624 closed sales of single family homes and condominiums during 2012, improving on 2011’s volume by 8,332 transaction for a gain of nearly 15 percent.

Last year’s completed sales included 55,699 single family homes and 8,925 condominiums. Together, these sales were valued at more than $19.9 billion, which compares to the previous year’s total of around $16.7 billion (up nearly 19.6 percent).

Median prices area-wide increased by $10,000 (about 4.3 percent), rising from $235,000 to $245,000, although not all areas reported gains. Mason, Snohomish and King counties reported the healthiest jumps.

• Closed sales: Northwest MLS broker-members reported 64,622 closed sales valued at nearly $20 billion.
• Median Price: $245,000 for single-family homes and condos that sold last year, up nearly 4.3 percent from 2011.
• MLS members added 91,359 new listings of SFH and condos to inventory, a drop of more than 10,000 units from 2011.
• Represented 241,781 home sellers, on average, each month.
• Reported 1,116 sales of single family homes and 138 sales of condominiums priced at $1 millionor more. 623 condos sold for $500,000 or more.
• The MLS area covering Bellevue/West of 405 (map area 520) had the highest number of million dollar-plus sales with 202, followed by Central Seattle (area 390) with 129. For high-end condos ($500,000-plus), Belltown/Downtown Seattle claimed the highest number of sales (170), followed by the area covering West Bellevue with 158.
• Highest prices: Among the 21 counties in the MLS service area, King County claimed the highest median price for single family homes that sold last year ($365,000).
• New construction: The median price for7,170 newly built single-family homes that sold in 2012 area wide was $299,950; for 930 condo sales it was $331,888.
• About half (48.8 percent) of single family homes that sold system-wide last year had 3 bedrooms.
• Condos: Brokers sold more than 8,900 condominiums during 2012; nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of condo sales system-wide were in King County; nearly 77 percent had two or fewer bedrooms.
• Prices, 3-bedrooom homes: The median price for a 3-bedroom home that sold in 2012 was$229,000; median prices on these homes ranged from a low $117,900 in Pacific County to $370,750 in San Juan County.
• Most expensive: The highest priced single family home that sold was on Mercer Island ($21,625,000); the highest priced condo was a downtown Seattle penthouse ($4.25 million).

Continue reading the full NWMLS press release for 2012 (pdf)

In March, the Seattle housing market may have turned the corner, even if only for one month as the median Seattle home sales price inched up 0.56% to $359,500 over last March.

The single family dwelling median sales price fared better than condos increasing 3.12% to $397,000 while condos lagged behind falling 11.75% to $236,500, compared to a year ago.

Currently, Seattle’s real estate market is exhibiting a “seller’s market” characteristic with low inventory supply and high buyer demand. The number of available homes for sale dropped 38.4% from a year ago while sales have increased 15.4%. Brokers are reporting a greater number of multiple offer instances, something we haven’t seen since the bubble burst.

Citywide, the inventory supply rate has dropped to 1.6 months of supply. That means, at the current rate of sales and provided no new listings come on market, it will take 1.6 months to sell out the remaining inventory. The months of supply metric is used to identify the market environment:

1 – 3 Months:  Sellers Market
4 – 6 Months:  Neutral Market
6 + Months:     Buyers Market

Will this trend continue? It’s hard to say. This time of year we normally see the number of listings rise as homeowners take advantage of the Spring selling season to put their homes on the market. However, that hasn’t happened this year, which is resulting in a dearth of inventory. On the other hand, low mortgage interest rates, rising rental rates and a better economic outlook in the Seattle region are encouraging buyers into the housing market.

Inventory will likely remain low until (1) housing prices start to increase and homeowners feel more confident about realizing appreciation (or minimizing their losses) and (2) banks begin to reduce the shadow inventory.