{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}
November was a pretty good month for single family residential home sales in Kitsap County. The graph shows the total number of homes sold (186), and contains pricing data for the original asking price, the price at which an offer was received and the final selling price.
While the number of homes sold declined from the previous month, they were almost identical to the number of sales for the same month one year ago. The average selling price was up 3.2% from the same period one year ago and the time on market is also about identical for this same time a year ago.
The average selling price was up 6.9% from the previous month! My best explanation for this large monthly average selling price gain is that there have been fewer new home listings compared with home sales, so the inventory of available resale homes has been tightening.
The other significant factor positively affecting prices is that the percentage of home sales comprised of “distressed properties”, those that are REO (bank owned foreclosures) and Short Sales decreased from 34% to 27% of the total number of homes Sold for the month of November.
Overall, it appears we are recovering from the gyrations in sales created by the first time home buyer tax credits and appear to be settling back into more normal seasonal sales and pricing patterns. Of course, our market is still going to be heavily impacted by distressed property sales for the foreseeable future due to a huge shadow inventory of Bank Owned foreclosed homes, but there are definitely positive developments appearing in our Kitsap County Real Estate Market.
Now, more than ever, Real Estate prices are very local centric and dependent heavily upon factors occurring neighborhood by neighborhood. Neighborhoods with large numbers of distressed properties will continue to have heavy pricing pressure, while those with fewer distressed properties appear to have firming pricing trends.
If you have been watching the Real Estate market and waiting for the right time to jump in, and you plan to hold the property for 5+ years, then I’d say now is a pretty great time to jump in. Interest rates are historically low, there are many compelling deals and it looks like employment in our region is going to be solid and improving.
We hope you are getting value from our Kitsap County Real Estate information. Soon, we’ll be posting some of our thoughts about where we are seeing some of the best values (homes on acreage, view properties, waterfront, and……yes, even multi-family properties). We hope you’ll subscribe to the RSS feed so you will be first to see our latest thoughts. Also, please let us know what you think and leave us your comments.
Thank You,
Brian & Jana, Broker & Managing Broker
John L. Scott Real Estate – Poulsbo
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