I’ve broken out the 2008 Kenmore, WA home sale statistics into some interesting categories so you can get a sense of how the housing market has performed this year. I realize we don’t have the year-end numbers yet, but a number of my friends and neighbors have been asking me if the market is as bad as the media says it is. The following charts might put some things in perspective. You can see larger versions of the charts if you click on them:
SALES BY VOLUME - MEANING THE TOTAL VALUE OF GOODS SOLD
The charts below show a steady drop in the total sales revenue generated in the last several years. Between 2006 and 2007 there was a 2.5% change in sales revenue; however, we saw a -48% drop between 2007 and 2008.
2008
2006-2008
HOME PRICES
This is probably the category of statistics that’s the most difficult to interpret. If you look at the three-year chart it’s a crazy zig-zag of prices. Basically, the largest drop in price actually happened in 2006-2007. We’ve basically seen a leveling-off in prices in 2008. This is due, in large part, to the small number of sales.
2008
2006-2008
UNITS SOLD
These numbers speak for themselves. We started out 2008 with about 50% fewer sales and this trend continued throughout the whole year.
2008
UNITS SOLD 2006-2008
DAYS ON MARKET
The number of days it took to sell a home in Kenmore increased for most of the year. Things have leveled-off the last several months.
2008
DAYS ON MARKET 2006-2008
Once again, the home sale numbers for Kenmore are sobering. This year I observed a reluctance of sellers to accept the deteriorating market prices. As a result, through most of the first half of the year, homes were languishing on the market. It was only after the real bad financial news hit in August-September that prices started to drop or sellers took their homes off the market. In the last several months the number of active single-family-homes dropped from over 200 closer to 170. Not a great drop, but it was an adjustment that took far to long to occur.
All-in-all, the Kenmore housing market reflects what’s going on in many cities in the Northwest. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues in 2009. Unless the Credit markets thaw, I fear more of the same.
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