Seattle April 2007 Home Sales

May 28, 2007

The Seattle region held its place among America's strongest housing markets in April, when its median sale price rebounded to match the record set earlier this year. But there were also signs of cooling: Sales dropped to a four-year low and the annual rate of price appreciation fell into single-digit territory for the first time since spring 2005.

A total of 6,183 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in April in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area encompassing King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. That was down 10.5 percent from March and down 15.2 percent from April 2006, according to DataQuick Information Systems of La Jolla, Calif. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

Last month's sales total was 2 percent below the region's average 6,319 sales for the month of April over the past decade. April’s decline in transactions marked the 11th consecutive month in which Seattle-area sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis.

The median price paid for all homes combined rose to $354,000 matching the record set in February. Last month's median was up 1.1 percent from $350,000 in March and up 8.9 percent from $325,000 in April 2006.

The April median's 8.9 percent year-over-year gain marked the first single-digit increase since the median rose 9.7 percent in May 2005. The annual rate of increase in the median paid for all homes has decelerated for the past three months.

King County's $400,000 overall median in April was a record, as was Pierce County's $279,000 median. Snohomish's $337,000 median was 3.4 percent lower than its record of $349,000 set in March.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA
	# of sales			Median sale price
	Apr-06	Apr-07	%Chg	Apr-06	Apr-07	%Chg
Resale houses	4,629	3,864	-16.5%	$336,000	$375,000	11.6%
Resale condos	1076	1012	-5.9%	$235,000	$267,500	13.8%
New homes	1588	1307	-17.7%	$349,000	$366,000	4.9%
All homes	7,293	6,183	-15.2%	$325,000	$354,000	8.9%

 

Media calls: Andrew LePage (916)456-7157 or John Karevoll (909) 867-9534

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