With this being such a tumultuous time in the Vancouver Washington (and national) real estate / home sales market, I know we have readers that would like to have a good idea how February 2023 turned out. For most months the data "firms up" about 10 to 14 days into the month (for various reasons) thus, we'll call this report a "sneak peek. "
The first chart we have is for the 3-month rolling average for Pending Sales, going back to 2018:
With February being short by 2 to 3 days, in most years we see this month as a low spot in the year. However, currently with such a strong shock to the market still being digested, we actually see a move upwards by two units. That said, we are still down 35% year to date (ytd) (-198 units) compared to 2022 ytd.
Here are the 3 data points that make up February's 219 number: Dec. 190; Jan 237; Feb 229.
We are still however, in a very low Inventory situation, with the measure going down to 0.5 month's of supply! The past couple of years we had low Inventory with higher tabulation for units sold. This year we have fewer new listings coming onto the market, such that Inventory is staying very low. The chart below reflects the longer time it is now taking to sell each home:
In February 2022 the Average days on market was 15; with the Median 5. In February 2023 the Average is 44; with the Median 23.
To be sure our real estate market has slowed down considerably, with far fewer transactions taking place; combined with a relative dearth of new listings coming onto the market; keeping Active Inventory quite low!
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