Kudos News Tribune for Keeping It Local...I was quoted in the paper yesterday...

Home sales warming up

C.R. ROBERTS; The News Tribune
More home sales closed in Pierce County in July than in any month since August 2007.

Nearly 21 percent more sales - of single-family homes and condominiums - were pending than were pending a year ago.

"I'm a happy camper at the moment," said Windermere Real Estate broker and Northwest Multiple Listing Service director Dick Beeson on Wednesday.  "It's good news on a lot of levels," he said.

Northwest Multiple Listing Service on Wednesday released its monthly data snapshot of residential real estate activity in the state.

In Pierce County in July, 903 sales were closed - compared with 747 in June and 796 in July 2008. Not since August 2007, when 1,120 deals were closed, have so many transactions been completed.

MLS also reported that 1,251 sales were pending in Pierce County in July, compared with 1,036 a year before.

The median sales price for closed sales was $228,500, compared with $255,000 in July 2008. Median means half of the homes sold were priced above and half were priced below.

In Thurston County in July, 284 sales closed, compared with 322 in July 2008. Statewide, 5,527 sales closed in July - against 5,271 a year before.

"It tells me, number one, that buyers are getting smarter, they're taking action, they're getting off the fence," Beeson said. "Number two, the median price has stabilized. We've literally stayed the same. With buyer demand going up, and inventory going down, we're getting back to a near-normal market."

The median home price in Pierce County in June was $230,000.

Theresa Bastian, a Tacoma Realtor and principal at Keller Williams, said Wednesday, "I'm cautiously optimistic. I think we're seeing several things going on in the market right now."

Bastian noted that her office is seeing bank-owned properties "being aggressively priced. People are falling in love with a good deal. Yes, it's a wonderful time to be a first-time buyer, but this isn't helping the move-up buyers. It's not helping people sell their homes and move up."

A major part of the apparent rebound comes from activity in the lower tier of homes for sale, Beeson said.

"What's being sold is mainly $250,000 or less," he said. "It's a strong market. I'd say that the higher end, $450,000 and up, and the midrange, $300,000 to $400,000, are still twelve months away. There will be sales made, but I think it's still soft."

He noted that there are 489 homes for sale in Pierce County priced at $750,000 and above.

"We still see a lot of activity in the lower end," said Bastian. "Which is wonderful - it's better than no activity."

She said she had seen other data - which calculate active listings in relation to pending sales - that indicate a property's likelihood of selling. These data show a home in the Gig Harbor area, placed on the market, had a 13.2 percent chance of selling earlier this summer. A home in the southeast of Tacoma had a 37.8 percent chance, and in Spanaway a 32.1 percent chance.

The number of closed sales of condominiums in Pierce County in July stood at 65, according to MLS, compared with 116 a year before. The median price of a condominium, $196,990, was down 9 percent from $216,475 in July 2008.

C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535

c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com