"The number of homes sold surged in some unexpected places. Kirkland and Renton saw an increase of over 46% from November to December. Seattle stayed relatively flat losing a mere 2.2%. Only Redmond saw a true decrease of 22%." Redfin, 1/20
Good Afternoon,
I wanted to give you a heads up that we published the latest "Insider Report" for the Seattle /[eastside] real estate market.
We take all sorts of qualitative and quantitative data and roll it up for monthly look back at the market, then we predict where we see the market going in the near future.
For this report the main takeaways are:
- Sales volume was shockingly up most of December. Buyers are out there.
- We are seeing some prices increasing, but it's too early to tell if it's a lasting trend.
- Inventory is pretty stale, so if you have a house to list, do it sooner rather than later.
Please [comment or] let me know if you have any questions or need additional information.
Thanks,
Michelle Broderick
Redfin Marketing Director
206.227.2062
1/20/2010
The chance of selling a home, the absorption rate, in some areas of Redmond was actually better in December than November. (The absorption rate is the number of home sales compared to the number of homes for sale. So out of 100 homes, if 10 homes sell, then the absorption rate is 10%).
ReplyDeleteThe multiple listing service divides Redmond up into two distinct areas. The area south of NE 85th and close to Microsoft is part of one area, while Education and Novelty Hill are considered together in another area.
The area of Redmond around Microsoft is consistently the strongest performing area on the eastside. In November homes in that part of Redmond, along with East Bellevue, had a 22% chance of selling. Whereas homes in the other parts of Redmond had a 12% chance of selling.
In December homes in the Microsoft neighborhoods of Redmond had a 20% chance of selling and homes on the hills had a 16% chance of selling.
The 16-18% drop in home sales sounds far more scary than the actual number. In December, 2010, there were 45 sales on Ed Hill and Novelty Hill, whereas this year there were 38, a difference of 7 homes.
Near Microsoft, the actual number of sales was down by 40% in December, but up by 47% in November. A little bit of a roller coaster!
In 2010, 7310 homes sold on the eastside and in 2009, there were 6705 home sales. Eastside home sales were up by 9% for the year.
I agree with Redfin's thoughts and I asked the same questions about the nature of the real estate market. Was the increase in overall sales a sign of things to come for 2011 or an anomaly?