Market Snapshot for Vancouver and Clark County Washington 2010/10/11

What's happening in the Vancouver and Clark County Washington real estate market? Because something's going on. Our ratios moved a little and have been hanging out at about 4.5-to-1 for the last 4 weeks. This is a change in that it hasn't been much of a change. The numbers are 2815 active listings with 611 pending contracts. The weird number this week is that the pending contracts were 858 when I checked three weeks ago, and 857 this week and last week. It's hard to fathom the probablilty of that (same count) happening. The Clark County numbers are 3841 active and 828 pending.

The ratio of bank-owned properties is creeping up. This is true since mid-summer and true for both the city and county ratios. The proportion of short-sale and bank-owned properties as part of the active listings is up about 3% since May, with a shift towards a higher proportion being bank-owned.

Is it safe to buy? Yes. What is happening with pricing? Are prices stable? Dropping? Do any of our neighborhoods have price increases? Pricing pressures continue to weigh market values downward. Just the sheer weight of 36% of the market in 'have-to-sell' mode will keep pushing the prices downward. I think the absence of big changes over the last month could be encouraging for sellers. Not that it's time to raise the price, but maybe the prices aren't changing so fast as they were. Most prices in most neighborhoods will probably show declines although in neighborhoods that have not had many (or any) short-sales, it is possible to see prices holding the upper range of particular groupings.

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