Puget Sound. The Place To be.

August Home Sales Stronger Than July as Prices Still Climb in Western Washington.

KIRKLAND, Wash. (Sept. 12, 2006) –Inventory gains, interest rates and in-migration contributed to a solid month of housing activity for members of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Despite reports of declining prices and sales in many parts of the country, NWMLS brokers in western and central Washington notched more sales in August than during July. The volume of pending sales dipped from the same month a year ago (down 13.2 percent), but surpassed July by 857 transactions for a gain of 9.4 percent.

Prices on sales that closed last month jumped 14.3 percent from a year ago, with most of the 17 counties in the NWMLS market area experiencing double-digit increases.
Inventory shows significant improvement – up 43 percent area-wide compared to last year -- but brokers caution there are still shortages in many close-in neighborhoods and in some price categories.

Northwest MLS figures show the volume of active listings stood at 33,316 at the end of August, up from the year-ago inventory of 23,260 properties. The selection includes 29,404 single family homes and 3,912 condominiums.

MLS members added 14,077 new listings to inventory during August, slightly more than the year-ago total of 13,358 residential properties. Only two counties, Snohomish and Skagit, reported slight declines in the number of new listings added to inventory last month compared to 12 months ago. Based on current indicators, there is about a 3.3 months supply of available inventory in the MLS system. In King County, the number drops to about 2.3 months and in Snohomish County it's about 2.5 months.

The condominium inventory in both those counties remains tight, with only 1.6 months of supply in King County and 1.2 months in Snohomish County. Brokers expect that to ease once thousands of condominiums in various stages of development are completed.
In the four-county Puget Sound region, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of current inventory, the supply is tightest in King County and most plentiful in Kitsap County: