Seattle’s condo market continues to exhibit a state of flux. Last month the condo median price dropped .49% to $305,000 compared to January 2007, the first year-over-year decrease in over 24+ months. Compared to December, the median price was down 4.7%, though typically the median price in January is lower than December.
As anticipated, the start of the new year brought sellers and buyers out of their holiday slumber. Sellers added 535 new listings in January bringing the total number of active listings to 1,298, a 15% increase over December. On the other hand, properties continue to sell well. The number of condos going under contract last month rose 8% over December but dropped 22% compared to the same period last year.
The condo absorption rate, or inventory supply, climbed to 6.9 months. That is, if no new listings come on the market, it will take 6.9 months to sell off the inventory at the current rate of condo sales. Good news for buyers looking to take advantage of the softening market; not so good news for sellers wanting to sell. While I anticipate the inventory supply will continue to rise, there are some positive signs. The potential sale of Domaine will remove 91 units from the market and a number of proposed developments won’t be seeing daylight for some time to come. Additionally, should the conversion bill pass the state legislature this session, the city council is expected to pass a conversion cap which will give the market a little breathing room to normalize.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:37 am
You usually break down each months condo numbers by area but you didn’t this time. You consitently broke down price and sales across king county and for january you did not do so. Why?
February 19th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Added as requested. Just ran out of time earlier.
February 19th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
great, thanks again!