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Surging home prices fuel fears of a new bubble

By
Mortgage and Lending with Absolute Mortgage

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Shoppers fighting over the few homes listed for sale in the Seattle area  pushed up prices again in May, prompting fears of a fresh housing bubble,  according to a new report.

The median sales price of a King County house in May was $417,500, up 15.3  percent from a year earlier and 4.4 percent from April, the Northwest Multiple  Listing Service reported Wednesday. Seattle's median house price was $460,000,  up 8.1 percent from a year earlier and 1.4 percent from April.

"We certainly can't sustain 15 percent annual price increases," said Glenn  Crellin, associate director of the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the  University of Washington.

In a listing service news release, Frank Wilson, Kitsap district manager at  John L. Scott Real Estate and   branch managing broker for its Poulsbo/Kingston  office, said: "We do not want a market that escalates too fast and  topples again." Read more here.