Seattle January 2008 Home Sales

March 14, 2008

Seattle area homes sold last month at the slowest pace for a January in 13 years. The region's median sale price continued to hold up relatively well, but rose only barely -- less than 1 percent -- above a year ago. It was the smallest annual gain for the median since 2001.

A total of 2,779 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area encompassing King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. That was down 23.4 percent from 3,627 in December and down 34.2 percent from 4,223 in January 2007, 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 the lowest for a January since 2,439 homes sold in January 1995. Regional sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis for 20 consecutive months.

The median price paid for all metro area homes combined in January was $345,216. That was down 1.2 percent from $349,558 in December and up 0.6 percent from $343,000 in January 2007. Last month's median was 5.5 percent lower than the peak $365,200 median in June 2007. The January median's 0.6 percent year-over-year increase was the smallest since it was also 0.6 percent in October 2001.

Another home price measure, the median price paid per square foot for resale houses, fell to $215 in January, down 2.7 percent from a year ago and 10.6 percent below its $240 peak in July 2007. The median price per square foot has fallen on a year-over-year basis for three consecutive months.

Sales and median prices in Seattle and other Western markets have been impacted in recent months by the credit crunch, which made "jumbo" loans over $417,000 pricier and harder to obtain. In the Seattle area, the number of home purchases financed with jumbo mortgages fell 61 percent in January compared with a year ago, while sales financed with "conforming" loans not exceeding $417,000 fell 33 percent. Before the credit crunch hit last August, jumbo-financed home purchases represented about 16 percent of all Seattle region sales, while in January jumbo-financed deals were 8.7 percent of all sales.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA

	# of Sales			Median Price
	Jan-07	Jan-08	% Chg	Jan-07	Jan-08	% Chg
Resale houses	2,571	1,621	-37.0%	$355,000	$355,000	0.0%
Resale condos	615	419	-31.9%	$256,340	$257,000	0.3%
New homes	1,037	739	-28.7%	$359,950	$386,960	7.5%
All homes	4,223	2,779	-34.2%	$343,000	$345,216	0.6%