Median Home Prices up 18.5% in King County

March 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A few days ago, I shared an article about how the greater Seattle – Bellevue – Everett area is one of the top 5 places in the country to be a home seller.  Yesterday’s article in the Seattle Times appears to back that up.

A record-low inventory of homes for sale in King County, very low interest rates and a growing Puget Sound economy combined to push the median price of houses sold in February to $365,000, an 18 percent jump over a year ago.

Only 2,947 homes were listed for sale in King County last month, down from 5,178 a year ago, according to Tuesday’s report by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

I’m currently working with several pre-approved buyers who are ready, able and wanting to buy a home in this area. What they need is more inventory.

If you have been considering selling your home, now could be the time. You may find that you have an advantage being listed before other homes plan to go on the market for Spring.

If you are planning on buying a home, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be prepared for competition. It’s crucial to be fully preapproved with a local, reputable mortgage professional.

If you’re considering buying a home in King County, or any county in Washington state, I’m happy to help you with your mortgage needs. 

Filed Under: Residential Purchase Tagged With: ,

Seattle PI reports Surging Home Prices in King County

December 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

This week Aubrey Cohen from the Seattle PI reported that sales prices in King Count jumped up just shy of 20% last month:

The median price of a King County house that sold in November was $385,000, up 19.7 percent from a year earlier and 4.1 percent from this October, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Wednesday. The median price in Seattle was $425,000, up 18.1 percent from last November and 1.2 from October.

Some non-distressed homes continue to experience bidding wars as inventory remains low. Here are some tips on what you can do to prepare for a “bidding war”.

Experts speculate that part of the jump in sales price could be from home buyers taking advantage of extremely low mortgage rates to buy a higher priced home.

If you are interested in buying a home, whether it’s your primary home, a vacation home or an investment property, I strongly recommend getting preapproved first. Being preapproved will help give you an advantage over unprepared buyers. 

If you are considering buying a home anywhere in Washington, I’m happy to help you with your mortgage needs. I have helping people buy and refinance homes in Washington at Mortgage Master Service Corporation since April 2000.

Filed Under: Economy, Residential Purchase Tagged With: , , ,

King County Home Prices are up 7% from last year

August 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Seattle Times reports that home prices for King County have jumped up 7.2% from July last year. This pencils out to $25,250 with the median sales price of $375,250. The article also notes that closings are up 26% YOY which is great news for the housing industry. It doesn’t matter how low mortgage rates or home prices are unless transactions can actually close.With less inventory, many buyers are finding themselves in bidding wars or having a property in contract before they can get their offer together. From the article:

“Another recurring theme is the dramatic drop in the number of homes for sale. Home listings have been sliding for a full year; in July the number of home listed for sale was down 38 percent year-over-year…

…distressed home listings — bank-owned properties and short sales — are down 60 percent from last year. This also contributes to the small number of listings and brings up home prices.”

Part of the reason for the low inventory, per Seattle real estate economist Matthew Gardner, is that many people are not able to sell because they are underwater with their mortgages and don’t want to go through a short sale.

If you’re considering selling and your property is non-distressed (you have enough equity to sell), this could be a great time with more buyers than sellers.

If you’re underwater with your home and would like to sell once you have equity, you might consider a HARP 2.0 refinance (if your last conforming mortgage closed prior to June 2009) or an FHA streamlined refi (if your existing mortgage is FHA). While you wait for home values to continue to trend higher, why not save on your monthly mortgage payments?

If you’re a home buyer, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be fully preapproved BEFORE you start shopping for a home. If you’re considering buying or refinancing a home in Seattle, King County or anywhere in Washington state, I’m happy to help you!

Filed Under: Economy, Residential Purchase, Seattle Tagged With: , ,
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