The Seattle Condo Blog

Third quarter results showed no Earth shattering revelations about the market - prices and sales are down.

Seattle’s condo median price for Q3 2008 was $305,000, down 5.3% from the same period last year. The number of closed sales fell 51.1% while total dollar sales volume dropped 53.3% to $193,339,000.

Year-to-date, the citywide median price remains unchanged at $315,000, though the number of closed sales are off 40.1% compared to the same period last year. So far, prices during the first part of the year were high enough to offset the price declines we’re now seeing. Though, by the end of year I anticipate a decrease in the annual median price figure.

The Seattle condo market saw a modest 2.7% increase in the median price in December, rising to $320,000, compared to the prior year.

As expected during the close of the year, the number of active listings, pending sales and closed transactions fell last month. There were only 174 pending transactions in December, the fewest over the past 24 months, no doubt arising from buyer concerns over the economy, a softening housing market and the mortgage situation.

The total number of active listings decreased 19.1% in December compared to November, though the 1,128 listings reflect an 83.1% increase over December 2006. The surprising figure last month was the jump in the Inventory Supply rate to 6.5 months. The condo supply rate hasn’t been above 6 months since early 2003. Good news for buyers, not such much for sellers.

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