© Mariko Mitsui Real Estate

Volume 5 2017 Issue

S hrinking Inventory Puts “Stranglehold”
on Sales Around Western Washington"Frustrating" is how brokers are summarizing the mood of buyers, brokers- and industry professionals - during the current housing market frenzy.
New statistics from Northwest Multiple Listing Service show declines ininventory and sales, while prices continue their upward trajectory, but thosenumbers only tell part of the story.
Inventory fell nearly 25 percent from the volume of active listings being
offered a year ago. At the end of April, MLS brokers reported 10,679
homes and condos for sale across a 23-county area, which compares to theyear-ago selection of 14,235 listings.

and 1930s command about $700,000. By comparison, homes built
between 1940 and 1980 cost closer to $610,000, and those that went up
in the '80s and '90s cost about $665,000 on average. Of course, areas in
Seattle with older houses tend to be in more desirable neighborhoods.
Many of the oldest homes have probably been remodeled andmodernized as well, raising their value.

B reakouts! – Residential SOLD AverageApril 2017 (King/Snohomish/Pierce County) SOLD Average
Average $Area (Area Code)Average $2017 VS2016
18.67%

Apr. 2017

Apr. 2016

MLS members continue to struggle to keep pace with demand. Brokers
added 10,648 new listings to their database last month, down from 11,939
during April 2016, and they reported 10,514 pending sales. That total wasdown 893 transactions for a drop of year-over-year drop of 7.8 percent.

Auburn-Federal Way (110-310)$410,157$ 345,620

Kent-Maple Valley (320-340)
West Seattle (140)$$444,114
628,985$ 401,630$ 550,065

SODO-Beacon Hill (380-385)$630,925$ 497,877

Prices area-wide shot up 10.4 percent from a year ago, from $325,990 to$360,000. The four-county Puget Sound region, which accounted for morethan 77 percent of last month's 7,276 closed sales, reported a price hike ofnearly 14.7 percent, led by Snohomish County at 16.7 percent. In
Snohomish County, the median price for single family homes and condos(combined) eclipsed the $400,000 mark, climbing to $416,668.

E.lake-Madison-Capital Hill (390)$ 1,037,554$ 976,455

6.26%$ 973,165

17.50%

Homes and condos that sold last month in King County fetched a median
price of $550,000, up about 15.8 percent from a year ago. For a singlefamily home (excluding condos) the median price was $625,000. That's$85,000 more than the year-ago figure, and $25,050 more than the previousmonth.
The pressure is across county borders and across the price spectrum.
"Market mayhem is wreaking havoc for homebuyers," suggested J. Lennox
Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott. The inventory shortage isfueling the market and prompting shifts in seller behavior, according toScott, who described the market as "intense as ever with 80 percent ofhomes in King County selling within 30 days of being listed.""Everything is down except prices," declared Mike Grady, president and
COO of Coldwell Banker Bain. Although the pending sales for the first fourmonths of 2017 are lower than the same period a year ago (down about 8.5percent), new listings are off even more (down 24.3 percent). "Thatcombination is shrinking the available inventory at an unprecedented pace,"
he remarked. The shrinkage is not an anomaly, he emphasized. "It has astranglehold on new sales. Additionally, this low supply and high demand
continues to put upward pressure on prices," he said.

Queen Anne-Magnolia (700)$ 1,143,435*Belltown-Downtown Seattle(701) $677,832

10.58%
14.35%
26.72%$ 752,070-9.87%
12.05%

Ballard-Greenlake (705)$804,182$ 717,709

North Seattle (710)$903,901$ 808,900

11.74%

Shoreline/Richmond Beach (715)$643,039$ 523,475

22.84%

Bellevue Downtown (520)$ 2,267,220$ 2,025,68811.92%

Mercer Island (510)$ 1,745,543$ 1,324,129

31.83%

Bellevue South-Newcastle (500)$ 1,046,757$ 906,727

15.44%

562,747$ 503,638

11.74%

Microsoft-Bellevue East (530)$ 1,037,813$ 797,20830.18%

Kirkland Downtown (560)$ 1,162,192$ 999,318

16.30%

Redmond (550)$$ 731,727

16.67%

Renton Highlands-Downtown (350) $853,678

Issaquah-Sammamish (540)$888,291$ 748,367

18.70%

Juanita-Bothell-Woodinville (600)$746,833$ 657,697

13.55%

Bothell North-Mill Creek (610)$666,581$ 553,352

20.46%

Edmonds-Lynnwood (730)$569,085$ 467,966

21.61%

Everett-Mukilteo-Snohomish (740) $457,780$ 417,237

9.72%*Condominium SOLD Average

WHAT IS PMIPMI stands for private mortgage insurance. It’s an insurance policy
your lender will take out to cover a portion of the amount you borrowin case you ever default on your loan.

Market Activity Summary for April 2017
Listings
Single Family

NewHomes & Condos Listings

Total

Closing Sales
Pending

Active# ofAverage

Closings

PriceMedianPrice

King3,676

2,2833,637

2,635$665,153$550,000

Snohomish

1,522

1,004

1,527

1,116

$446,209$416,668

Pierce

1,762

1,604

1,920

1,289

$323,146$290,500

Total

6,960

4,891

7,084

5,040

$478,169$419,056

H ome prices based on decade they were built
As reported in the Seattle Times, Estately - a local real estate site, broke
down our home costs by comparing sales prices for home based on
which decade they were built. Brand-new homes were the priciest,
selling for an average of $845,000 in Seattle. Seattle homes built before
1910 now sell for an average of $725,000, while homes from the 1920s

This means if you stop paying what you owe on your mortgage andthe lender forecloses on your property and suffers a loss, the insurancecompany will pay out a claim to the lender.
Even though PMI protects the lender, you are the one who must pay
the premiums. That’s why it’s a good idea to avoid PMI when buying
a home.

Gina Brown (NMLS#115337)

Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®)

Mortgage Specialist /Mortgage Capital Associates

M ay 12, 2017425-766-5408
gina@gmgloan.com
www.loansbygina.com

Average Rates

Regional Breakdown

Fees & P o ints
AP R

30-Yr
FNM A
3.875%

30-Yr
FHA
3.50%

15-Yr
FNM A
3.125%

5/1
A RM
3.125%*All loans are wit h a one point originat ion f ee.

4.004%

4.985%

3.35%

3.248%** Owner Occupied / Single Family Residence
740 credit score and 20% down payment for conventional
640 credit score and 3.50% down payment for FHA