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Seattle Condos Market Update
This year the number of Seattle condominiums for sale has dropped lower than the corresponding period last year. This is a good sign since the last thing we need is more people putting their property into a sluggish market. In August 2008 numbers showed total active inventory of 1,503 which was 1.83% lower than August 2007. Looking at the numbers earlier this year, inventory was over 60% higher than at the same time in 2007. This is largely due to a number of reasons such as; a.) developers holding off on their Seattle condos projects and waiting for the market to get better in hopes of higher profits, and b.) apartments intended for condo conversion reverting back to apartments due to cost inflation, as well as c.) a number of completed condo projects turning into rental units so that developers can make some income per month.
The average price for last month's closed sales of Seattle condominiums was $310,000, which showed a drop of 6.03% from a year ago when the average price was $329,900. If we compare the current sale prices of Seattle condominiums with the prices of two previous months this year, median prices of the condominiums were about the same around $310,000 for August and $299,975 for July. The number of home sale closing deals in September was almost half of what it was in the previous year around the same time. Looking at the market condition, not many people are ready to invest in the real estate market at the moment. Therefore developers want to wait for the market to improve in order to make sufficient profit and in the meantime they are renting out condos as apartments for monetary return.. The volume of year-over-year pending sales transactions for September was down 14.50%. On the other hand, monthly inventory has improved from 8.9 in August to 7.8 in September.
In summary, the September numbers of home closing deals indicate a modest shrinkage in inventory with pending sales still lower than last year but better than the last two months with the average prices experiencing negative single digit percentage reductions. The recent credit market crisis and negative news reports have definitely hampered many homebuyers' confidence. For the time being most people are reluctant to enter the real estate market. If these trends continue we probably will not see market activity picking up until early next year.
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