Seattle Region March Home Sales

Seattle-area home sales rose sharply in March compared with both February and the unusually low level of a year ago, though the sales pace was still below average. The region logged its smallest annual decline in the overall median sale price in nearly two years, while two price measures specifically for resale detached houses rose modestly from year-ago levels for the first time since late 2007, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 3,939 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow during March in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan statistical area encompassing King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. March sales rose 55.0 percent from February and increased 52.0 percent from March 2009, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

Total sales have risen on a year-over-year basis for nine consecutive months. In March they were the highest for that month since 2007, but they were still nearly 26 percent below average and the fourth-lowest for a March since 1994, when DataQuick's complete (all home types) Seattle-area stats begin.

A big increase in sales between February and March is normal for the season, but this year's 55 percent gain was well above the average February-to-March increase of 37 percent since 1994. It's likely that the jump in sales was at least partially triggered by buyers moving up their home-purchase plans in order to meet this spring's deadline for a federal home buyer tax credit.

Low mortgage rates and lower home prices also helped spur sales across the price spectrum last month. March's sales over $500,000 rose to 16.5 percent of all transactions, up from 16.3 percent in February and 14.8 percent in March 2009. Also helping to spur sales has been a gradual, though still modest, comeback in adjustable-rate financing, which represented 7 percent of the home purchase loans in March. That's up from 2.3 percent a year earlier.

The 81 homes that sold over $1 million in March represented an increase of nearly 33 percent from both February and a year earlier, based on an analysis of public records that identifies transactions with either a sale price or loan amount of $1 million or more. Million-plus home sales peaked in June 2007, when 293 sold in the Seattle metro area.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos combined in March was $294,950, up 3.5 percent from February but down 1.4 percent from $299,000 a year earlier. It was the smallest annual decline for the all-home median since it dropped 1.1 percent, to $349,950, in April 2008.

March's median was 19.2 percent lower than the Seattle area's peak $365,200 median in June 2007. The last time the median was higher was last December, when it was $297,450. In the past year, the median was highest in June 2009, when it was $312,000, and lowest in February this year, when it was $285,000 - the lowest since spring 2005.

The overall median has fallen on a year-over-year basis for 26 straight months.

The median paid for resale single-family detached houses was $306,000 in March, up 5.5 percent from February and up 3.7 percent from $295,000 a year earlier - the first annual gain since December 2007. Over the past year the resale house median was as high as $320,000 last June, while it hit a low of $289,000 this January. March's resale house median stood 22.4 percent below the peak $394,500 median reached in June 2007.

Another key price measure, the median paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses, rose in March to $174. That was up from $165 in February and up 2.2 percent from $170 a year earlier. It was the first annual gain since October 2007. This March's figure was 27.2 percent below the peak $239 median paid per square foot in June 2007. Until March, the figure had mostly trended lower each month since hitting a 2009 high of $183 last June.

The median paid for resale condos in March was $229,475, down 4.1 percent from February and down 4.4 percent from $240,000 a year earlier. The resale condo median stood 18.0 percent below its $280,000 peak in June 2008.

In March, sales of foreclosed properties represented a smaller share of the resale market: 24.7 percent of all homes resold were houses or condos that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months, down from 28.0 percent in February but up from 21.7 percent in March 2009. So far, the peak for foreclosure resales was 28.5 percent in January this year.

The number of single-family houses and condo units foreclosed on rose in March compared with February and was higher than a year ago: 775 homes were lost to foreclosure in the Seattle region, up 4.2 percent from February and up 44.3 percent from a year earlier. The figures are based on the number of trustees deeds filed with the county recorder's office. The document signals that a home was lost to foreclosure. The highest month for foreclosures was last October, when 1,117 trustees deeds were filed.

In the first quarter (January-March) of this year, 2,217 homes were foreclosed on in the Seattle region, down 29.1 percent from fourth quarter 2009 but up 29.6 percent from first quarter 2009.

The foreclosure totals can include units that the county assessor has designated condos, but are currently used as apartments (e.g. a 100-unit complex designated as condos but used as apartments could be foreclosed on and those units would be reflected in the foreclosure total for that month). For this reason and others, the number of foreclosure filings has seesawed over the past year, and a single month's or quarter's increase or decline doesn't necessarily indicate the beginning of a lasting trend.

First-time buyers and investors continue to drive a large portion of the Seattle housing market.

The use of government-insured FHA loans, a popular choice among first-time buyers, fell slightly in March: 34.1 percent of all purchase loans were FHA, down from 36.2 percent in February and down from 35.5 percent a year earlier.

Absentee buyers accounted for 17.9 percent of all March home sales - a relatively low percentage in the West but the highest it's been in the Seattle area since January 2009. March's figure was up from 16.6 percent in February and 13.2 percent a year earlier. Absentee buyers include investors and second-home buyers, mainly, as well as others who indicated at the time of sale that they will have their property tax bills sent to a different address.

Absentee buyers paid a median $245,000 for their homes in March, up 3.4 percent from $237,000 in February but down 12.5 percent from $279,950 a year earlier.

Those who appeared to be using cash to purchase their homes made up 17.5 percent of all buyers in March and paid a median $270,000. That compares with 18.5 percent cash buyers in February and 16.7 percent in March 2009. Specifically, these were transactions where there was no indication of a purchase loan recorded at the time of sale. Some of these "cash" buyers could have used alternative financing arrangements outside of a typical purchase mortgage, and in some cases these buyers might be taking out mortgages after their purchases. All-cash deals have become popular in many Western markets where prices have dropped sharply, luring investor buyers who don't always qualify for traditional mortgages. Moreover, sellers favor the relative speed and certainty of all-cash transactions.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA

Number of sales	Mar-09	Mar-10	%Chng
Resale houses	1,707	2,695	57.9%
Resale condos	343	646	88.3%
New homes	542	598	10.3%
All homes	2,592	3,939	52.0%

Median sale price	Mar-09	Mar-10	%Chng
Resale houses	$295,000	$306,000	3.7%
Resale condos	$240,000	$229,475	-4.4%
New homes	$339,000	$304,973	-10.0%
All homes	$299,000	$294,950	-1.4%