As Bellevue's real estate market continues to heat up in late Spring, we're seeing a building momentum of pending sales. Closed home sales have been on the rise throughout 2013 and those closings are significantly higher than years past, but the overwhelming number of new signed contracts points to a summer of real estate sales that dwarfs the current market.
Pending Bellevue Homes vs. Homes Sold, Monthly
A total of 6,260 houses and condos were sold in April in Bellevue. That represents an 8.9 percent gain over March, and is right on track with previous months' gains. The increased home sales partially represent the usual seasonal cycle of Spring increases, but also a significant bump from the current demand in the market.
Pending sales, in the meantime, rose 5.3 percent during the same month. Total signed contracts in Bellevue for condos and houses in April stood at 8,167. That increase was healthy, even if it was a slightly slower rate of gain than closings.
The numbers that really stick out, however, are when solds and pendings are compared directly. There were 30.4 percent more homes that went under contract in April than those that closed. In all likelihood that points to a 20 to 30 percent increase in closed sales during May and June. While pending sales don't always pan out, they're becoming a much better predictor of closed sales than they were in recent years.
Short sales and foreclosures brought a lot of pending sales numbers under scrutiny while the market was in downturn. A large number of those pending transactions never came to fruition, and the stat wasn't a particularly safe metric to use in predicting the next month's sales. As short sales have become more standardized, however, far more of the transactions are closing, and closing at a faster rate. With far fewer foreclosures on the market in Bellevue as well, the percentage of traditional resale homes has risen significantly.
From the looks of the current market of pending home sales, it appears thay May, and likely June, could set some records for the highest totals of home sales we've seen in years. Buyer demand doesn't seem to be slowing, and if the current trends continue, the number of signed contracts will continue to eat up most of the listing inventory in Bellevue through the early summer.
© SeattleHome.com: - Sam DeBord, Managing Broker, Realtor
Board of Directors, Washington Association of Realtors
Coldwell Banker Seattle: Coldwell Banker Danforth & Associates
Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Google + | Sam (at) SeattleHome.com
Source: NWMLS Stats - The Northwest Multiple Listing Service did not compile or publish this information.
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