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Seattle-Eastside Real Estate Sales Through February, 2013
Did February's real estate sales top January? They sure did! Seventy-four percent of the homes on the market sold! Homes continue to sell with multiple offers and for over full price.
The number of homes dropped only a bit from January, and was the lowest number of homes for sale in over 20 years. Sales skyrocketed though, climbing from 605 to 713 homes. This number doesn't sound like a lot, until you consider the fact that only 968 homes were for sale.
The hot market continues, but two areas of Seattle's eastside were on fire. South Bellevue and Issaquah and East Bellevue and Redmond, near Microsoft. If a home had a "for sale" sign in the yard in these areas, it sold last month!
Sellers still need to price their homes for the market or the buyers will not come. Buyers will pay more than full price if there's competition from other buyers and the house is a well maintained with a market value price tag on it. Homes don't sell for more than full price if they are overpriced when they go on the market. But if buyers see the value of the home and there's more than one buyer, that's when a home sells for more than full price. Sellers must attract the buyers with a good value if they truly expect to attract multiple buyers and sell for at least full price and possibly more!
Buyers, since the ball is in the seller's court in 2013, you have to be prepared. Work with a Realtor who knows market value and whether it's worth paying more for a home if there are multiple offers. Find out if your Realtor has worked in this kind of seller's market before and how they handle multiple offers. Get pre-approved by your lender and have it in writing to present with your offer. Make a simple, clean offer. Include a good earnest money check to accompany the offer. Pre-inspect the house if the seller allows it, so you can be assured of an inspection, but not have it be part of the offer. It's one less contingency that you and the seller will have to sort out when comparing the offers and puts your in a better position.
The hottest selling price range was for homes priced under $350,000. Right behind it were the homes priced between $500-750,000. Fifty three homes sold for over $1,000,000 this past month. There's less than 2 months worth of inventory for all homes priced below $750,000!
The strong real estate market should continue. In the Seattle Times, Dick Conway, an economic forecaster said:
…. robust job creation by the likes of Boeing, Amazon and other major companies headquartered here should create more demand for new housing, which in turn will create construction jobs, and hunger for more housing.
Here are the specifics for February, 2013 as compared to February, 2012:
- 74% of the available homes sold this past February, 33% sold in February, 2012.
- Homes continued to sell quickly, in 79 days, which is down from 119 days in February, 2012.
- In 2012 median pricing in February was $447,000. In 2013, February's median pricing was $525,000. Median pricing has been a solid $500,000+ for months now and should continue to be for the next few months
If you'd like more information specific to your home, don't hesitate to contact us.
*The absorption rate is the percentage calculated by dividing the number of sales by the number of homes for sale.
