August 2012 Home Sales Data, Prices & Trends for Kitsap County
{Note: In the event you got to this article from an older link, here is a link to the newest data for this category of monthly home sales in Kitsap County}
August was a great month for Home Sales and Real Estate in Kitsap County. The total number of homes Sold hit a new high for as far back as I’ve been regularly tracking it which is more than 3 years!. The median selling price was $250,000 which is the highest it’s been in more than a year and is up over 5.6% from the same period one year ago. The average home price also hit a new high, edging up to just over $300,000.!
Other good news is that of the total homes sold in August, only about 20% were distressed properties (REO’s, Bank Owned Foreclosures and Short Sales) which is near an all time low going back nearly 3 years!
While the numbers are improving and at their best levels for more than a year, from an operational view, we are also seeing increased competition for the available inventory of homes & decreasing time on market. These factors imply continuing strength moving forward.
The biggest unknown variable is the quantity of “shadow” inventory of homes in various states of foreclosure, and the existing inventory of Bank Owned homes that have not yet been put on the market.
It seems there has been a controlled and consistent release by the banks of distressed homes onto the market and there is a strong correlation between the amount of distressed inventory and home prices. In Kitsap County looking back over the last year the monthly median number of distressed homes being Sold is 64 and the average is 67. It makes sense that the banks would not want to just dump everything on the market all at one time.
In the previous 4 months, we’ve seen the number of distressed homes comprising a declining percentage of the total homes sold. While the banks have continued to release a relatively consistent number of distressed homes for sale, the total number of homes being sold has increased, causing a decline in the percentage of homes being sold that are Distressed properties. Distressed home sales have declined from nearly 35% to a low in August of just over 20% of the total homes sold.
If home sales continue at around this level, we should expect to see continuing similar results, however; I believe we can expect to see some seasonal declines in home sales in the coming winter months until the spring market ensues sometime around the end of February.
A buyer looking to time the market may have a special opportunity in January/February; though I don’t personally recommend this approach as there are always great opportunities and there are a lot of other variables that could have significant impact on home prices including geo-political, interest rates, etc. Also, in the winter months there is often less inventory on the market available so there are fewer choices for a buyer.
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Brian Wilson, Broker
19723 10th Ave NE; suite 200
Poulsbo, WA 98370
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