Drizzle Forecast For Seattle Housing

Seattle's resilient housing market has managed to weather the housing crisis like few other cities in the nation. But a little rain could be about to fall on that parade. The city's housing market is beginning to show the same mixed-market conditions that appeared elsewhere before prices tumbled.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Seattle's resilient housing market has managed to weather the housing crisis like few other cities in the nation.

But a little rain could be about to fall on that parade.

The city's housing market is beginning to show the same mixed-market conditions that appeared in metros elsewhere before prices tumbled.

During 2007, well after home prices started slipping in many major metropolitan areas, Seattle's median price on single-family homes was up 7 percent. Condo prices rose nearly 11 percent in 2007, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

But by late last year, market strain was slowing sales, swelling inventories and depressing prices in the Puget Sound town.

This year in May, condo prices were up only 4 percent, compared to a year earlier. Single family home prices were down 2 percent, according the MLS.

Seattle real estate agents who report to RealtyTimes' Market Conditions say it's almost too close to call, but the market looks more and more like a buyer's market.

They also say prices are nearly flat.

Even after price declines, Seattle's median single family home price is nearly a half million dollars and, in today's inflationary economy, that gives edgy buyers sticker-shock.

Pending sales in May were down nearly 40 percent, compared with a year earlier for both houses and condos, according to the MLS.

With sales down, Seattle's inventory of homes has jumped by 40 to 50 percent, says ZipRealty CEO Pat Lashinsky.

But Lashinsky says that could be good news. Motivated sellers will lower prices further and give more buyers an opportunity to buy.
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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