Windermere Woodinville Blog

Let’s take a look at the real estate picture on the Eastside of Lake Washington, across from Seattle.  We call this area the “Eastside.”  We look at all price ranges lumped together.  We look at all square footage lumped together.  Let’s see how long things stay on market, what sellers get versus what the asked for and how the price per square foot has changed over time. 

Our first graph considers that average days a property stay on market and a comparison of the actual selling price with the original list list price expressed as a percentage, e.g., the sellers were getting only 89% of their original asking price in December of 2008 on Seattle’s Eastside.

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Let’s take a look at the real estate picture on the Eastside of Lake Washington, across from Seattle.  We call this area the “Eastside.”  We look at all price ranges lumped together.  We look at all square footage lumped together.  Let’s see what the inventory looks like. 

“Months of Inventory” is synonymous with “tool to gauge buyer or sellers’ market.”

We will also look at the five year trend in inventory based on closed sales.

Look at the increase in inventory.   In 2005, at the top of the hot market, there was scarce inventory.  A house came on the market and it jumped off the shelf. Today, there is a substantial rise in inventory.  It has become a buyer’s market.   Days on market lengthens. 

Buyers can take advantage of this. 

Owner/sellers are not out of it by any means.  There’s still a market for them but they must work harder. Sellers must price correctly, stage properly and consider buyer concessions.

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What’s the Median Price Doing on the Eastside? Around $525,000.

In 2007, $700,000.

What’s the Median Price Doing on in Area 600 (Woodinville/Juanita)?

Around $450,000.  In 2007, over $550,000.

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Listings slowing in King County; Really down in Pierce, and Down in Snohomish County.  Is the market adjusting? Stabilizing?

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President  Signed the Economic Stimulus Measure on February 17,2009.

The $790 billion stimulus package signed by President Obama increases the home buyer tax credit to $8,000, drops the repayment feature, reinstates last year’s 2008 loan limits for FHA, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae loans, and provides $2 billion in additional funding for states and localities to be used to purchase, manage, repair and resell foreclosed and abandoned properties.

Homebuyer Tax Credit

$8,000 tax credit that would be available to first-time home buyers (those who haven’t owned in at least three years) for the purchase of a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009.

The credit does not require repayment for buyers who hold onto their property for at least three years.

The credit will be claimed on a tax return to reduce the purchaser’s income tax liability.

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The weekly sales ratios for the week of 2-12-09 (as culled from the statistics of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service) show some promising signs for more sales activity on Seattle’s Eastside.

The report shows:

• 7 straight weeks of equal or increasing sales.
• Eastside sales were over 100 for the week.
• Weeks supply of inventory for most areas were the lowest year-to-date.
• King County had 30.8 weeks supply or about 7.11 months supply.

Real estate sales activity appears to be picking up.

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From a national perspective, housing prices will hit bottom in the fourth quarter of 2009, predicts Moody’s Economy.com in a new report.

On average, nation-wide home prices will decline 36 percent from the peak in the first quarter of 2006, the report says.

By the end of the housing downturn, nearly 62 percent of the nation’s 381 metropolitan areas will have experienced double-digit-percent declines in house prices, peak-to-trough, says the report.

Locally, we don’t see the steep decline in home prices from 2006, because our area did not heat up like other parts of the country. 

Also, we are getting some anecdotal evidence from agents in the local market that price declines may be slowing.   We will keep a close eye on the NWMLS data and report it to you.

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Across the country short sales have become more prevalent.

What is a “short sale?”

The fellow on the far right in our “line up” owes more on his home than he will get when he sells.  He won’t gross enough to pay for the underlying loan.  He’s underwater, upside down and he will come up “short.”

The other home owners in the line up also owe some money on their mortgage, but their heads are above water.  The homeowner on the far left, a little more in the blue, will make more than the homeowner in the middle.

When the two on the left sell, they’ll make enough to pay off the mortgage (the money they borrowed for their home) and still have something left over as profit.  The money they “made” on their home they can pocket (watch out for capital gains) or move on to use this profit to buy their next home.

When buying a “short sale” home the buyer and the seller must have the lender’s approval for the sale.  This creates a “contingency” on the seller’s side of the transaction.  It also creates complications in the sale.  Special expertise is required to make sure there’s a chance of closing a short sale.

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REALTOR Magazine Reports Current Interior Design Trends

Using data from Traditional Home Magazine, REALTOR reports that the interior design trend is mixing traditional with modern aesthetics. The color gray has peaked interests as the current “it” color along with the following trends:

            -Bare wood in furniture and decor – such as tree stumps, decorative accents, etc.

            -Very light wood finishes that almost look “raw”

            -Ornamental LED Lighting

            -Owls and other wooded creatures

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