Pending Homes Sales Up in Snohomish & King Counties

More good news is emerging from the housing market as pending sales rose 30% in Snohomish County from a year ago.  Despite a 9% drop in median price from June 2008, Western Washington has seen a 4.4% increase since January of this year according to the Northwest Multiple listing service.  Most of the sales are coming in the low to mid price ranges from $200,000 to $500,000.  However, the upper end market is also showing since of improvement as buyer traffic has increased significantly over the last two months.

Read the full story from the Everett Herald here:

http://heraldnet.net/article/20090706/BIZ/907069987#Pending.home.sales.up.in.Snohomish.County

 

Closed sales are up 4% from a year ago in King County but the median price during that same time edged down slightly.

Read the full story from the Seattle Times here:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2009424140_webhomesales06.html

 

As always, thank you for trusting me with your referrals.  I do not take them lightly and will always provide excellent information and professional real estate service to my clients.  Have a great week, Tyler

 

 

 

206.799.3877

TylerEch@Cbbain.com

Alderwood Boys and Girls Club’s: 2008 Volunteer of the Year!

Congratulations to our 2008 Volunteer of the Year, Tyler Echelbarger!   

 Tyler has been involved with the Alderwood club advisory board for several years and has helped with our annual auction, Campaign for Kids, and work parties at the club.  He has helped produce marketing material and hosted volunteer information parties.  Tyler is also on the committee for the Ed-Lynn Golf Classic helping to raise money for the Edmonds and Alderwood Clubs.  The club thanks Tyler for his dedication and efforts.

~ The Alderwood Club Staff

Click below to see all that is happening at the  Alderwood Club:

http://www.bgcsc.org/main.asp?id=47

April 2008 to April 2009: The Latest Stats

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service released their April stats yesterday and outlined the fact that 2009 has some positive signs emerging in what has been a difficult and troubled market. 

 The statistics show that pending single family home sales rose over 28% in Snohomish County and 15% in King County from a year ago.  The surge is being attributed to lower prices, low mortgage rates, and buyer incentives such as the first-time home buyer tax credit.

 The majority of the recent sales have been in the lower end market which should trigger a similar surge in the “move up” market in the next two or three months.  Despite the fact the million dollar market continues to struggle, once these other segments stabilize, we should see sales pick up considerably in that upper end market as well.

Here are the links to the May 6^th articles from our local papers:

Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009180657_homesales06.html

Everett Herald:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090506/NEWS01/705069742#Hopeful.sign.for.housing.market

 

If Boeing “fly’s away”, our Real Estate market could follow

Despite the fact the State of Washington has diversified its commercial industries over the last two decades; The Aerospace industry, namely Boeing, has always been our state’s most important when it comes to the economy, jobs, and net-in migration.

 

The front page of the Herald on April 23, 2009 read, “Could Boeing Fly Away?” and outlines the idea that our State is not a competitive business climate and claims the “clock is ticking” on Boeing’s relocation. 

 

Read the full article here:

http://heraldnet.com/article/20090423/BIZ/704239866&news01ad=1#Could.Boeing.fly.away.from.Washington

 

Should Boeing phase out of Washington over the next 10 or 15 years, how would that effect our economy, net migration, and of course, real estate?

 

In the April 14^th publication of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, they help answer these questions and paint a rather dismal picture of our State’s economy through the year 2030 should Boeing leave.

 

Here are a few highlights (really low lights) from that report:

·        Boeing has a “job multiplier” of 3.96 where each Boeing job supports nearly 3 additional jobs.  The loss of Boeing’s 72,000 jobs would result in a statewide loss of around 285,000 jobs.

·        Net-in migration decreases year to year through 2022

·        Home prices decline by an estimated 6.5% by 2030.

·        Employment shortfalls total 320,000 jobs by 2022 and 375,000 by 2030.

 

Call Olympia and let them know that they must act now to encourage Boeing’s future investment and production stays here in Washington, our State’s economic future depends on it.

 

E-mail me to receive the entire eight page report from the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy.

 

 

 

 

 

If you know anyone thinking about buying or selling real estate, I would be happy to give them great advice and help however I can.  I never take a referral lightly and appreciate the opportunity.

206.799.3877

TylerEch@Cbbain.com

First-Time Homebuyers, this ones for you!

 

 

 

 

Looking to buy your first home, condo or townhouse?  Or, haven’t owned property in the past three years?  Now you can benefit from the governments new and improved first-time homebuyer tax credit, part of this year’s stimulus package.  Learn more here about this extra credit, and contact me for more details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sign up to receive Market Remarks by e-mail, Subscribe from the home page, right column.  Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

Tyler J. Echelbarger

206.799.3877

TylerEch@cbbain.com

Is your Agent a Dinosaur? The Evolution of Real Estate Marketing

I often ask myself why the majority of real estate agents continue to market like they did in the early 1980’s, dumping thousands of dollars into outdated, tired marketing plans.  I have concluded that it is because, number one, many agents are just plain lazy, number two, agents are creatures of habit and resist change, and number three, they do not fully understand how the industry is evolving, the new tools available to them, and are unable to communicate to their buyers and sellers anything other than what they have always done.

DID YOU KNOW???

·        Roughly 88% of buyers first find their home on the Internet.

·        Buyers are 900% more likely to find their home on the Internet than in the newspaper.

·        Buyers are 3400% more likely to find their home on the Internet than in a real estate home book.

(Source: 2007 National Association of Realtors, Profile of Home buyers and sellers)

 

NEWSPAPERS

I am about to touch on one of the big reasons newspapers are going broke.  Simply put, circulation is down, readership is down, and they are losing millions of dollars a year in real estate ad space because it is an outdated marketing tool.  According to the Belo Corporation consumer surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007…”Barely 10% of the Tri-County population receives the Seattle Times/P.I. and only 1.5% of that 10% reads the Classifieds section”.  The result is that newspaper advertising to sell a house is practically hopeless.

The Stats: NWMLS 2008 Annual Report

Each year in late January, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) publishes its annual report on the Puget Sound’s previous year’s real estate statistics.  This report has it all, from the median sales price of closed condominiums in King County, to how many million dollar homes sold in Snohomish County, to the number of active members of the NWMLS, and so much more.

*The following information is local and taken directly from the NWMLS 2008 annual report.

**Some of the charts are a little tough to read, for a complete copy of the report, email requests to TylerEch@cbbain.com

Fast Facts:

·        The NWMLS reported more than 54,000 sales in 2008

·        1,171 single family homes sold for $1,000,000+

·        Of the 19 counties served by the NWMLS, San Juan County claimed the highest Median Sales Price of single family homes at $510,000

·        More than 8,500 condos sold, 60% were in King County 

2008 Median Price of Closed Single Family Homes, by County

A look back at Real Estate in 08′

By: Tyler J. Echelbarger, Realtor w/Coldwell Banker Bain

At the stroke of midnight on December 31^st, 2008, I raised my glass and toasted good riddance, once and for all, to 2008.  Indeed, many want to forget 2008 and its troubled economy, plunging stock market, financial meltdown, and government bailouts, but the lessons learned must never be forgotten.

One day in August 2007 we saw signs that trouble may be lurking as open house traffic abruptly dwindled, home sales slowed considerably, and realtors were left asking each other, what in the world happened to the market?

Even with the struggling market in the last quarter of 2007, we had reason for optimism in 2008.  Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the National Association of Realtors, spoke to Seattle area brokers and thought that we would be relatively secure from the decline that had already devastated markets in California, Arizona, and Florida.  In fact he saw Seattle as a “superstar city” and thought it likely that 2008 would outperform 2007.  In fact, Forbes magazine wrote similar articles praising the Puget Sound market and even deemed it “bubble proof”.

 RESIDENTIAL:  Median Sales Price of Closed Homes

 

Why I started Market Remarks

by: Tyler J. Echelbarger

Over the past year we have seen a struggling real estate market, a wall street meltdown, and a general unwinding of the economy.  As I speak with clients about how this past year has affected their personal situations when it comes to their home and real estate investments, it has become increasingly evident that there is a plethora of information out there causing utter confusion.

My goal in starting this web-site blog is to use concrete information gained through statistics compiled by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, the National Association of Realtors, and other reputable sources to give us all a PERSPECTIVE on what the reality is about the market in King and Snohomish Counties.  Often, we are given National news and numbers which are rarely useful as the Real Estate markets are highly localized County to County, City by City, and even Neighborhood to Neighborhood.

I am not interested in manipulating statistics or filtering through articles to find only the most favorable market commentaries.  I am committed to using any statistics and articles which will give us a true representation of our current Real Estate market and how this market effects you and your family.

I encourage you to register your e-mail address with this site so you will receive the very latest market news and numbers.  My intent is to do a monthly statistical summary for King and Snohomish Counties the first week of each month, a New Construction and Land sales report,  and at least two commentaries each month based on articles from magazines, newspapers, or other reputable sources.

I look forward to the ongoing conversation and hope you will find the information helpful and useful when forming your opinions on the local Real Estate market.

206.799.3877

www.TylerEch.com