Seattle Region September Home Sales
The Seattle-area's September home sales were the highest for that month in seven years, though sales fell slightly short of the longer-term average for that month and slipped a bit more than usual from August. The median price paid for a home dipped month-to-month again but it was 11 percent higher than a year earlier, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 5,013 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow during September in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area encompassing King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Seattle sales fell 16.7 percent from the month before and rose 23.1 percent from a year earlier, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.
The number of homes sold this September was the highest for that month since 2006, when 7,179 homes sold. However, this September's sales were 1.7 percent below the average number of homes sold during all months of September since 1994, when DataQuick's complete Seattle-area statistics begin. Resale single-family house sales were 0.4 percent below the historical average for the month of September, while condo resales were 29.1 percent above average and sales of newly built homes were 30.7 percent below the September average.
The region's mid- to high-priced neighborhoods again posted large sales increases compared with a year ago, while sales in the lower price categories saw more modest gains or declines. The number of Seattle-area homes that sold in September for less than $150,000 dropped 1.4 percent year-over-year. Sales of homes priced above $200,000 rose 35.3 percent year-over-year, while $300,000-plus sales rose 43.7 percent. The number of homes that sold for between $200,000 and $600,000, a typical move-up range, rose 30.1 percent from a year earlier. Sales over $700,000 rose 62.4 percent year-over-year, though transactions in that price category represented only about 10 percent of total September sales.
Buyers paid a median $322,500 for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the three-county Seattle area in September. The median fell 0.8 percent from August and increased 11.2 percent from September last year. It was the second consecutive month in which the median fell slightly from the prior month (the August median dipped 1.2 percent from July's $329,000, which is the highest median for any month this year). On a year-over-year basis the median has risen for 18 consecutive months, and those annual increases have been double-digit for the past 13 months.
September's median was 11.7 percent lower than the Seattle area's peak $365,200 median in June 2007, and it was 34.4 percent higher than the post-peak trough of $240,000 in January 2012. During the housing downturn the median fell 34.3 percent between the peak and the trough, a decline of $125,200. In September the median stood $82,500 above the trough, meaning it had made up nearly two-thirds of its peak-to-trough decline.
Sales of distressed properties - the combination of foreclosure resales and short sales - accounted for roughly 25 percent of the Seattle area's resale market in September, up from about 23 percent the prior month and down from around 35 percent a year earlier.
To view other Seattle area September highlights (two charts) visit DQNews.com.
Media calls: Andrew LePage (916) 456-7157
Source: DataQuick; DQNews.com
Copyright 2013 DataQuick. All rights reserved.
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