Spokane Real Estate Market Update May 2008
Our Spokane real estate market is kicked into high gear
Not as high a gear as the last few years, but the market is certainly holding it’s own. Spring is here and so are the buyers. The market ramped-up mid-February when the snow melted and buyers thawed out, leading to a big March and April closing period.
This is the first statistics report, so, nothing to compare it to from the last few months, we can only look at the raw numbers and MLS statistics.
When we look at the MLS statistics, what are we really looking at?
Everything. Every property type. Every city within the MLS. Which is why I don’t like using the MLS stats. Generally, when we discuss the Spokane real estate market, I want to know about single-family homes in and around Spokane, not in Colville, Spangle, etc. Not condos. Not 120 acre parcels. Nothing wrong with these communities or property types, but I want to know about, analyze and discuss Spokane houses.
So, let’s look at Spokane houses, as of May 10th, 2008:
The footnote states: Includes sales data from Spokane, Spokane Valley, Millwood, Veradale, Liberty Lake, Medical Lake & Airway Heights on Single Family Houses on <= 1 acre.
What the above really tells us is that the Spokane real estate market is still truly a seller’s market under $225,000 and is a little soft above the $225,000 price point. The $150k - $175k price range is the most competitive, with sellers getting 99.3% of asking price from buyers, and a modest 82 days on market.
Lets look in the middle
60.2% of house sales in Spokane occur between $125k and $250k. Active lisitngs (those not yet sold) range from $59k - $3.4 million, but the bulk of what buyer’s purchase is $125k - $250k. With 4.2 months supply of homes it is still a seller’s market, and the good homes priced well sell.
Regards,
Aaron
Comments
2 Responses to “Spokane Real Estate Market Update May 2008”
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Good Idea using pendings rather than sales to get your #months supply. How many agents have you talked to that have sold the same house more than once. I am looking at a property that “sold” at $379K and the financing fell through. After many months and a few price drops it “sold” again at $330K and is now listed at $299K. How about looking at 2469 houses for sale and 1613 closed sales in the last six months. I know that skews the numbers down due to winter but I think it is a little more honest about how many houses are really changing hands. But don’t worry now is a great time to buy and houses always go up in value!
Yes, I like using the pendings to get # months supply because pendings shows the market activity for the last 30 days or so. It really shows how many months supply we have using last month’s (April’s) sales pace, not November - March’s sales pace.
Still, pendings doesn’t give the most accurate read possible, because there will always be a “flub” rate of homes that go to pending, but come back on the market because buyer’s financing falls through, buyer changes their mind, etc. Regardless, the #months supply will, over time, help tell us how the current market is performing relative to other time periods. I’m not so interested in the absolute number for # months supply, rather, how the number compares to previous time periods.
Thanks,
Aaron