The Cascade Team Blog - Market Conditions

In Western Washington Competition Among Home Buyers “Still Fierce;” Rising Interest Rates Adding to Fury

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• New Listing Inventory up 16%

• Pending Sales up 10%

• Closed Sales up 22%

• Prices up 13% YTD

KIRKLAND, Wash. (June 5, 2013) – Well-priced homes continue to draw multiple offers and sell at a brisk pace around Western Washington as buyers react to increases in interest rates and asking prices.

Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported double-digit gains in several key indicators it tracks for the 21 counties in its service area. Compared to a year ago, the number of new listings climbed 16 percent, pending sales increased about 10 percent, closed sales jumped nearly 22 percent, and prices rose more than 13 percent. Despite gains in listing activity, inventory remains tight.

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Thinking of Selling? Make Your Home a Product!

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Many homeowners have been sitting on the sidelines, stuck in their homes and unable to sell because of low home prices or negative equity. But as the market bounces back in many parts of the country, some sellers are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

If a home sale is in your near future, it’s time to start thinking of your home as a product to be sold on the market. Once for sale, your home becomes less about where you live, where you’ve made memories or have lots of life experiences. And to achieve top dollar, you have to look at your property through the eyes of prospective buyers who will be touring your home. You have to focus on what buyers are looking for.

How is my home a product?

Once…

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Most Expensive U.S. Home List for Nearly $200 Million!

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By Erika Riggs

There’s Versace’s former home, priced at $100 million, Steven Cohen’s $115 million apartment and a Manhattan penthouse listed at $125 million. But none of them hold a candle to the 50 acres of waterfront in Greenwich, CT that recently hit the market at $190 million, becoming the most expensive listing in the U.S.

While the house is impressive —  public records measure it at 13,519 square feet with 12 bedrooms and 9 baths — it’s the spectacular land that pushes the price tag up to nearly $200 million. The home sits on 4,000 feet of coveted waterfront property on Long Island Sound, which doesn’t includes the additional access to two private islands in the Sound. The two parcels, one at 30 acres…

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Rates Take a Blood-Bath - Mortgage Applications Drop 9% Last Week

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It can be hard to find sanity after a blood bath like yesterday, which is dog-piled on top of a tough 2 weeks for interest rates.  Especially, now that taking all the coupons into account, it is now apparent that today was the worst single intra-day for MBS’s since they’ve been tracked.

But look at the “big picture”, which I found myself reminding un-locked home buyers and their agents of today:  –that it does help to see visually.  Below are the fixed rate mortgages every 12 months during MY LIFETIME as captured at the end of each year.  With this past November to December being the all time best, (the black dot I marked below), and today being the purple dot I marked…    doesn’t seem so bad.  Particularly when…

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Housing Trend Report: 2009 - 2013

Attached is a map of the U.S and specifically the progress we have made since 2009 as it relates to average home values regionally throughout the U.S. 

The colored bar graph in the upper right corner reflects in 2009 that homes were approximately -17% down in value, and by 2013 we have scratched our way back to +10.5%.

With rising rates (currently we are at 4.375%, up from 3.75% since Tuesday May 14th)  and the current state of the MBS’s which are down .43bps at time of this emial, NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY, IF YOU ARE IN THE MARKET!

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Understanding the Numbers When Buying in a Low Inventory Real Estate Market

As a homebuyer in today’s market, you’re no doubt at your wit’s end trying to find your dream home.

And when you find a home you love, you’re competing with all cash offers and bidding wars driving the sales price above what it’s listed for, and many times, even above what the home is actually worth!

While there is nothing you can do to create more homes for sale, you can certainly arm yourself by understanding the trends and patterns in the areas you’re trying to buy in.

While it’s not quite rocket science, there is definitely a significant competitive advantage to those that understand the trends of a real estate market.

Sometimes, being competitive means not looking in the most competitive price ranges in the most competitive markets.

…

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Puget Sound Real Estate Market Officially Catches Fire!

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Multiple offers are "the new normal" for housing market around Puget Sound

• April 2013 Sees the Highest Volume of Pending Sales Since May 2007
• 10,351 New Listings Added Consumed by even Greater Number of Closed Sales and Pending Sales
• Prices up Area Wide 12.5%
• Sales up 20% Year over Year
• Multiple Offers Become the “New Norm”

KIRKLAND, Wash. (May 6, 2013) – Northwest Multiple Listing Service members notched their highest volume of new listings since June 2011, but the additions did little to ease inventory shortages. Brokers also reported the highest volume of pending sales since May 2007, along with anecdotes of bidding wars.

"Multiple offers have become the new normal," remarked MLS director Diedre…

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A Better Mouse Trap to Sell Your Home!

Prices are on the way up and homes are selling quickly, and inventory down over 60% in many areas from Seattle to San Diego and Arizona. Sammamish, WA for example; has a 61% drop in inventory over the past year. In March of this year western Washington saw nearly 10,000 new listings added, yet even more than 10,000 homes were sold or went Pending meaning inventory of availiable homes still continued to shrink.

At The Cascade Team Real Estate our listings are on the market for an average of only 10 days, and over 50% are selling in 3 days or less with 42% of our listings receiving multiple offers and going ABOVE asking price!

How are we doing this?...... We built A Better Mouse Trap to Sell Your Home!

Why pay 2% more for one of "Those Over-Priced…

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Are Home Prices Rising Too Fast?

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Some housing analysts are concerned that the sudden rise in home prices could make homes more unaffordable again if the price increases outpace income growth, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Average housing costs for home buyers who took out a mortgage were around 22.5 percent of average incomes, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting. That is down from 38.5 percent in 2006, the peak of the housing bubble. The historical average is about 33 percent. 

Get Your FREE Home Values Report

   * Not a Guess or “Zestimate”    * Actual Active Market Data    * Selling vs. Asking Price    * Current Active Listings    * Actual Sold Prices    * Days on…

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5 Best Cities in America for Short Sale Deals

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1) Santa Barbara, Calif.

Average short-sale price: $283,825

Average discount vs. nondistressed sales: 42.69%

Santa Barbara experienced the biggest increase in short-sale purchases, which rose 107% during the fourth quarter from a year prior, nationwide, according to RealtyTrac. Real-estate agents say buyers returned to the market late last year in search of deals as home prices appeared to bottom out: the median sales price of all properties in the city was roughly $600,000 at the end of 2012, down from about $700,000 in 2010 and approximately $800,000 in 2008, according to listings site Trulia.

2) Phoenix

Average short-sale price: $149,094

Average discount vs. nondistressed sales: 37.84%

Buyers have been…

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