Maple Valley Market….the Numbers Don’t Lie but They’re Definitely Confusing!

You'd probably have to be living under to not be aware of National housing market slow down. But unless you're trying to sell your home here in the Maple Valley area, you may not be aware of just how things have shaken out this year.   You’d probably have to be living under to not be aware of National housing market slow down. But unless you’re trying to sell your home here in the Maple Valley area, you may not be aware of just how things have shaken out this year.

Here’s a snapshot of what we’re seeing compared to last year:

Sales are down 59% but prices, on average are up approximately 12.5%

HUH?

Explaining the decrease in sales is a no brainer. Lenders have tightened their belts as well as credit standards and it’s become more difficult to buy a house for the first timer. In most cases, the first time buyer will be required to have a down payment, and when you’re talking about average prices in the mid-400,000 range, that’s a pretty large cash reserve most people just don’t have. They haven’t had to “save to buy” like my husband and I did twenty years ago. It was so easy just a few years ago for anyone with marginally decent credit to buy zero down, have the seller pay their closing costs and boom…they own a home with next-to-nothing out of their pockets.

If buyers can’t buy, houses don’t sell. As I said, that part’s fairly easy to explain.

But how can prices be up when sellers are reducing list prices all over town….including builders? I decided to sit down and actually figure out what was what. I first broke out several different market segments and price ranges. For the most part, every stat I was coming up followed the numbers above the numbers with respect sales numbers, but not the increased price. So I sharpened my pencil and dug deeper.

Was it Luxury homes? Had they risen over last year?

No.

Specific price ranges, demographics…could that explain it?

No.

Then I hit on one stat which indicated the price of homes on one or more acre had actually increased an average of approximately 4% over last year. The balance of the increase seems to be the result of an average gain in New Construction of approximately 7% from 2006 to 2007. I recalled that many of those 2006 sales were actually contracts written as “pre-sales” in late 2005 and wouldn’t have been finished or closed until 2006. It will be interesting to see what happens with prices in the first quarter of 2008. I personally think we see a minimal, if any, increase when compared to first quarter 2007.

All is not doom and gloom though. Pricing is the name of the game and if a property is priced right, it will sell. As an industry veteran (you know who you are!!) once told me ages ago….”There is no market that price won’t cure”.

Amen Sister Friend!

Colleen "Fish" Fischesser RE/MAX Select RE Maple Valley, WA

www.ColleenFish.com     www.MapleValleyRealEstate.com