The Cascade Team Blog - Market Conditions

Seattle & King County Real Estate Market off to a Great Start in 2012!

Housing market "healing itself," numbers are "astoundingly good"

KIRKLAND, Wash. (Feb. 6, 2012) – Pending sales may not appear to be much higher than 2011 (up 13.7 percent in January), but the numbers are "astoundingly good," considering such factors as harsh weather and the tax credits that boosted sales at this time a year ago, said Ken Anderson, president and designated broker at Coldwell Banker Evergreen Olympic Realty in Olympia.

The latest figures from Northwest Multiple Listing Service show pending sales in January outgained the same month a year ago by 739 transactions. Brokers reported 6,132 mutually accepted offers in January to start the year with a 13.7 increase over the January 2011 figure of 5,393 pending sales.

"Given that…

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Five Listing Description Deal Killers (and makers)

Guest Author, Michael Corbett, is host of NBC's Extra Millionaires & Mansions and author of the national best-selling book "Ready, Set, Sold!"

Every aspect of a listing’s marketing can impact its sale price, even the word choice. For agents,  making sure descriptions capture a serious buyers attention is key to getting your sellers the most money.

When describing a home, the details matter.  In the bestselling book Freakonomics, authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner explain that “An analysis of the language used in real-estate ads shows that certain words are powerfully correlated with the final sale price of a house…. A ‘fantastic’ house is surely fantastic enough to warrant a high price, isn’t? What about a ‘charming’ and ‘spacious’ house in a…

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2011 King County Housing Statistics

Sales for homes in King county rose by 7% compared with 2010 while the average price dropped an additional 10.7%

 Northwest MLS brokers report more than 56,000 sales during 2011,

KIRKLAND, Wash. (Jan. 23, 2012) – Members of Northwest Multiple Listing Service tallied 56,290 closed sales of single family homes and condominiums during 2011, improving on 2010’s volume by 4,290 transactions for a 7.4 percent increase.

Last year’s completed sales included 48,952 single family homes (up 7 percent from 2010) and 7,338 condominiums (an increase of more than 10 percent from 2009). Together, these sales were valued at more than $16.7 billion, about $900 million less than the previous year (a decline of 5.1 percent).

Both median prices and inventory…

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Carlsbad Homes and Real Estate Update

As of Monday January 16, 2011, the median price for a single family residential Carlsbad home has increased slightly to $620,000 with an average of 156 days on market, up 12 days from the last report.  About four weeks ago we saw a sharp drop in home prices, which could have been fueled by short sales and/or bank owned homes hitting the market, but we are now seeing a modest increase.  Days on market have held fairly steady over the last few weeks.  Inventory levels have been relatively consistent given the current sell through rate.  Despite the fact there is still a significant number of Carlsbad homes for sale, this buyer's market is starting to see prices stablize; however this could reverse very quickly if the housing market starts to show signs of…

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Seattle - Eastside Real Estate Market Continues Upward Swing!

"Healthy marketplaces" emerging with shrinking inventory, favorable financing

KIRKLAND, Wash. (Jan. 4, 2012) – Home sales finished the year much stronger than they started, with pending sales for the fourth quarter outgaining the first quarter by more than 3,000 transactions for a 21 percent increase, according to new figures from Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

A year-over-year comparison shows December’s pending sales (mutually accepted offers) rose more than 20 percent from a year ago. Northwest MLS brokers reported 5,237 pending sales last month, up from the previous year when they recorded 4,359 transactions.

Last month’s pending volume exceeded the number of new listings (4,604) for the second consecutive month. The last time such…

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Location, Location, Location becomes Deception, Deception, Deception by National Association of Realtors

Just the headlines for now:

• EXISTING U.S. HOME SALES REVISED DOWN BY 14% FROM 2007-2010
• EXISTING HOME SALES REVISED DOWN BY 15% IN 2010 TO 4.19 MLN

Thank you NAR for proving what everyone knew: that the US housing market is one big lie. And next: here come the historical GDP revisions.

At The Cascade Team we have said all along... You NEED Real Estate Brokers to tell you the TRUTH and not the lie that you want to hear!!

The three charts that matter:

And the reasons for the "rebenchmarking"

• Fewer FSBO home sales and more REALTOR®-assisted home sales (e.g., no net increase in home sales in a case where 80 MLS sales and 20 FSBOs shifts to 90 MLS sales and 10 FSBOs)
• More Homebuilders seek REALTOR®-assistance in listing…

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Carlsbad Real Estate Update

Southern California’s real estate market is remaining geared towards home buyer's in the month of December. Prices have trended down quite sharply over the last couple of months, but it appears that Carlsbad home prices over the last few weeks have stabilized, at least temporarily.  We are hopeful this trend will continue and establish a floor for pricing on Carlsbad area homes.

As of Monday December 19, 2011, the median price for a single family residential Carlsbad home has declined slightly to $612,995 with an average of 144 days on market, down 5 days from the last report.  About four weeks ago we saw a sharp drop in home prices, which could have been fueled by short sales and/or bank owned homes hitting the market. Days on market have held fairly…

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Carlsbad Homes For Sale - A Real Estate Update

Southern California’s real estate market is remaining geared towards home buyer's in the month of December. Prices have trended down quite sharply over the last couple of months, but it appears that prices over the last few weeks have stabilized, at least temporarily.  We are hopeful this trend will continue and establish a floor for pricing on Carlsbad area homes.

As of Monday December 12, 2011, the median price for a single family residential home in Carlsbad has risen to $619,000 with an average of 149 days on market, up 10 days from the last report.  About four weeks ago we saw a sharp drop in home prices, which could have been fueled by short sales and/or bank owned homes hitting the market. Days on market have held fairly steady over the last few…

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4 Tips to Help Your Buyers Refine Their Home Search

Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Are your buyers having a tough time wading through the inventories of homes to find the right home? Kelly O'Ryan, an office manager with Coldwell Banker in Lexington, Mass., offered some of the following tips in a recent article at RISMedia to help your home buyers narrow their search when looking for properties: 

1. Have your home buyers make a list of all the must-haves for their future home, such as the number of bedrooms and school district they must have. 

2. Make sure your buyers get pre-approved for a mortgage by a lender. This will help ensure they don't look for homes that are only within their budget. Get Pre-Approved HERE and See Rates

3. Encourage your…

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Seattle Area Homes Sales More Trick than Treat for October

www.TheCascadeTeam.com

KIRKLAND, Wash. (Nov. 3, 2011)

King County Home Prices drop 17.9% from October 2010!

King County reported one of the sharpest year-over-year declines. The median price on last month‟s completed transactions in the county was $287,500, which compares to a year-ago figure of $350,000 (down about 17.9 percent). For single family homes (excluding condominiums), median prices slipped 14.7 percent, dropping from $375,000 a year ago to last month‟s figure of $320,000.

– Befitting October and Halloween, last month‟s housing activity had both tricks and treats. Northwest Multiple Listing Service members reported solid gains in pending sales (up almost 21 percent from a year ago), consistent demand in many price ranges, a shortage…

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