Residential Review: Southwest Washington

October Residential Highlights

In October, the gap between same-month sales from a year ago continued to widen in Clark County. Compared to October 2008, pending sales rose 56.9% and closed sales increased 52%. New listings, on the other hand, dropped 13%. The 56.9% increase in pending sales is the largest on record since RMLS^TM began tracking statistics for the area in 1996 and the 52% increase in closed sales is the largest since September 2003. When comparing October 2009 with September 2009, closed sales rose 13.8% (535 v. 470), while on the other hand pending sales dropped 1.2% (576 v. 583). New listings fell 6.6% (765 v. 819). At the month's rate of sales the 3,421 active residential listings would last approximately 6.4 months, down from 13.7 last year at this time and at its lowest point since September 2006.

 

Sale Prices

 

The average sale price for October 2009 was down 16.3% compared to October 2008, while the median sale price dropped 14.5%. See residential highlights table below. Month-to-month, the average sale price and median sale price decreased when compared with September levels; the average sale price fell 5.4% ($219,700 v. $232,200) and the median sale price was down 5.6% ($200,000 v. $211,800).