There Were No Sellers Markets in the Seattle Area in July, 2010

King & Snohomish County Real Estate, 7-31-10

There were no sellers’ market in July. “Red” indicates a sellers’ market with homes selling in less than 3 months.  If you look at the map above, all  the Seattle markets are either a buyer’s market or a balanced market between buyers and sellers.

There’s a mix on Seattle’s eastside. Some markets are buyers’ markets such as West Bellevue and the Sammamish plateau cities of Sammamish, North Bend, Preston, and Fall City.  Homes in these real estate markets took on average over 6 months to sell.  The majority of Seattle Eastside real estate was a balanced market with homes selling between 3-6 months.

The state of the real estate market is a huge contrast from just three months ago when there was no “green” on the map at all.

Clearly, the tax credit did its magic during that time. Is it the economy, job situation or is it the lack of urgency with interest rates slated to be low for a long time that is keeping buyers from making a home purchase?  I’ve heard opinions about all three reasons as the cause for the slow moving real estate market.  What do you think?

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What do the numbers on the map mean?

The map is divided into the numbered areas as defined by our Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS).  Downtown Bellevue is area 520 and East Bellevue is area 530, as an example.

What do the colors mean?

Red means it’s a sellers’ market, a sellers’ advantage.

Yellow means a balanced market between buyers and sellers.

Green means it’s a buyers’ market.

If you take each area as shown on the map and look to the area number on the side of the map, it will tell you how long it would take to sell every home currently for sale if no other home came up on the market in that area.