Home sales cool slightly in July
By Kristina Shevory
Seattle Times Eastside business reporter
People across the nation may be more eager to invest in
real estate as an alternative to stocks, but that's not
necessarily the case in the Seattle area.
Home-sale figures released yesterday show that the
lowest-mortgage rates in 30 years are continuing to prop
up the local real-estate market. But the effects of massive layoffs at Boeing and many high-tech
companies has cooled things off a bit.
The number of home sales that closed last month was down 3 percent in King County, compared
with a year earlier. In Snohomish County, closed sales were off 10 percent.
Median home prices generally were higher compared with a year ago, although in King County they
dropped 3 percent from June.
"Right now, buyers are a lot pickier than they were before," said Mike Skahen, a board member of
the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which compiles the monthly batch of numbers. "They realize
they have time to look and can wait to buy when they find a nice house," said Skahen, a broker with
Lake & Co. real estate in Seattle.
Skahen said many buyers felt pressured to purchase homes earlier this year, believing interest rates
were going to rise.
But with rates still low, buyers believe "they have more time to pick and choose," said Henry
Samonte, an associate broker with John L. Scott Real Estate in Laurelhurst.
Another factor is that a growing number of potential buyers are having trouble qualifying for a home
loan.
"We're dealing with a lot of folks less well-qualified than buyers of the past," said John Tidwell, a
Windermere Real Estate broker in Federal Way.
"A lot of lenders are scrambling to find people. The biggest single difference now is that there are
buyers who don't have all their ducks in a row."
In the 14 Western Washington counties that the Kirkland-based multiple-listing service tracks, 6,475
homes sold in July compared with 6,553 last year, down 1.2 percent.
The number of King County home sales that closed in July, traditionally a slower month, fell 3
percent from a year earlier and down 6.7 percent from June.
Despite the slowdown, median home prices in King County rose 2.8 percent to $257,000, compared
with $249,950 last year, but slipped 3 percent from the record $265,000 in June.
In Snohomish County, the median price of a sold home was up 3.6 percent from June.
North King County and Southwest King County saw the biggest drops in the county's closed sales,
falling 17.7 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.
Sales in Pierce and Kitsap counties gained 2.7 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.
It took a little longer to sell a home, with the average house being on the King County market 49
days, five days longer than last year. |
