Monday Market Musings, Vancouver, Washington
The ratio of active listings to pending listings is a bit over 7 to 1. This is a slight increase over last week's, and is about what it's been most of the last two months. This ratio is for the whole area (Vancouver north to Salmon Creek and Vancouver east to Washougal). Some neighborhoods and price points have different ratios. For example, half the homes in pending status were priced between $200,000 and $300,000. About 2/5 of the homes in pending status are up the I-5 corridor and east of 205.
Is Green Selling?
Of the homes that are listed in pending status, about 3.978% have a 'green' attribute. This reflects a proportion about equal to the number of active listings that have that green attribute - 4.5%. I think this statistic is encouraging for the trend to more sustainable living. As I've lamented before, we can't see through the buying statistics to see if the buyers deliberately bought green, but I think this ratio sounds pretty encouraging.
Are prices changing here in Vancouver, Washington? Yes, I think the market snapshots show prices are still trending down. A rough average of pending sales price is $255,000. (My number isn't like RMLS because they take in a broader area.) The RMLS report does show a trend in price decline. Last year they reported a huge jump in inventory from August to September of 2007 (from 7.7 to 12). Since March, we've maintained a pretty steady supply of homes right around the 12 month level. According to RMLS, the price decline for the year was about 6.3%. Have we taken the bulk of the decline in overall prices? (Historically, major home price declines seldom exceed more than 25% through the slump. I think I could do a whole blog on that... )
I think there are reasons to be optimistic for the long term. We have pretty steady employment numbers in Vancouver, Washington - some major employers cutting back and other new industries moving in, so I think that bodes well for the future of Vancouver employment. So, if you're thinking of buying or investing here, this is still a good time.
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