How's the real estate market in the Olympia area this week? Probably the most frequent question I get asked by anyone who knows or discovers that I am a real estate broker - whether or not they are currently trying to buy or sell a house. It is just one of those things that almost everyone finds intriguing. Is the market improving? What is selling anyway - is anything selling?
Well, in the week ending September 18, 2011, the simple answer is yes, homes are selling. In fact there were 44 new pending sales in that time period (this look at the market excludes condos, manufactured homes and short sales).
Of these 44 new pending sale, the list prices look like this:
Under $100,000 - 2 pendings
$100,001 - $200,000 - 12 pendings
$200,001 - $300,000 - 16 pendings
$300,001 - $400,000 - 12 pendings
Over $400,000 - 2 pendings
And here's an encouraging tidbit I noticed - of the new pending sales, 30 of them went under contract in less than 90 days (with 13 of those actually pending in under 30 days). Clearly there are buyers out there ready to buy! And also encouraging is the activity in the over $300,000 category. That has been a more difficult market segment since many buyers either can't qualify for a large enough mortgage to buy in that price bracket, or just don't feel comfortable taking on larger payments.
Since we are still reading news of possible additional cutbacks in state government (and of course many of those jobs at stake are here in Olympia), I think the market strength shows that employment has diversified quite a bit from the days when state government was the main player in town.
Another interesting thing I noticed in looking at market statistics from last week is the count of new listings. Remember the homes that went off the market with pending sales totalled 44 for the week. The new listings coming on to replace them totalled 38. This confirms what many agents have been sensing - that the available inventory is beginning to shrink a bit. This is especially true when you look at new listings under $200,000 - a grand total of only 3 new ones!
Yes, the real estate market in the Olympia area is alive and well as we move into fall!
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