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Report from NWMLS, January 2012

-          Home sales finished the year much stronger than they started. This is mainly due to historic low interest rates, the return of higher FHA loan limits and the incredibly low prices.

-          Closed sales outgained year-ago totals. December’s completed transactions were up 7 percent from twelve months ago.

-          Following the pattern of recent months, prices were down. The median price for December’s closed sales of single family homes and condominiums declined about 11.8 percent from a year ago, dropping from $255,000 to $225,000. Brokers attribute much of the slip in prices to the number of distressed properties in the mix. In some areas, foreclosures and short sales, which tend to be sharply discounted, account for about one-third of sales.

-          Also trending downward is inventory (about 17.2 percent decrease).   In some areas like Seattle, inventory is down 30 percent compared to a year ago.

-          The job centers, like Seattle and Bellevue, are looking strong again.  The combination of shrinking inventory and favorable financing is causing some areas, like Seattle and Bellevue, to tilt toward a seller’s market, as measured by the supply of homes.

Historically, the trends that originate in the Northern Counties take time to trickle down to mid and Southern counties, like Thurston, but at least the trend of recovery appears to have begun.