Multiple Offers for Seattle Eastside Homes in February 2012!

 
The Seattle-eastside real estate market was hot in February. Buyers were lining up and multiple offers were often the norm.  Multiple offers? Yes, multiple offers.

 

When I check listings each day, I notice there are many homes that sell within a matter of days. Most days when I check listings, I’ve noticed they’re fewer new listings than sales.  Just the other day there were 49 new listings on the eastside and 69 sales. More homes are selling than are coming on the market.

 

The supply of buyers outweighs the supply of homes right now, which results in multiple offers for a home. This was common before the market crash and is now becoming a common phenomenon again here in the eastside cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond.
 

What happened to the supply of homes on the eastside?
In the eastside cities of Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond, etc, sellers who are able to hang on to their homes and choose not to sell are waiting, particularly if they paid more for their homes.  The shadow inventory of foreclosures, is still a shadow at this point.  There are foreclosures, but the eastside real estate market is not glutted with them.
 
This February there were 734 fewer homes, about 31% less, for sale on the eastside than last year.  With almost 1/3 fewer homes on the market, it’s no big surprise that multiple offers are happening.  Not only are fewer homes on the market, but more are selling than last year.  Almost 100 more homes sold this February than last.
 

As I mentioned last month, it’s surprising to see fewer homes on the market than in January. Usually the number of homes for sale follows the same trend that we see in the chart for 2011.  As most years progress, there are more homes for sale each month, with the number peaking sometime in the summer. This year we’ve not seen this pattern.  It’s pretty unusual at this time of year to see the number of homes for sale actually be a lower number than the previous month.  This week the number of homes for sale in all of King County dipped below 7000.  We started the year with about 7500 homes for sale, so homes are selling at a pretty fast clip.

 

Does this mean that home prices are going up? Even with multiple offers, not all of the homes are selling for full price.  There are some homes, though, that are in demand, are truly special or are priced incredibly well which can and do sell for more than full price.  Prices on the eastside are actually down about 2% from last year.

 

The wrap up February, 2012 Seattle-eastside real estate:

• 31% fewer homes were on the market in February this year than in 2011.
• The average time a home took to sell was 118 days.
• Sales prices on average were  8% below the seller’s original asking price.
• 34%  percent of the homes for sale this January received offers and sold.

 
What’s happening in your neighborhood?  Is the real estate market off to a better start this year?

*The numbers are a result of the real estate sales activity that happened that particular month only.  In order to see a trend, it is important to look at a number of months together.  One month is only indicative of that particular month’s sales.

Stayed tuned to see if this hot real estate market continues.