According to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service:
- King County - the median price for a home was just under $325,000 in May 2012 compared to $316,740 in May 2011. Pending sales increased 22.45 percent over a year ago and closed sales rose 2.6 percent.
- Snohomish County – the median price for a home was $245,000 in May 2012 compared to $230,000 in May 2011. Pending sales increased 20.08 percent over a year ago and closed sales rose 6.52 percent.
- Pierce County – the median price for a home was $192,000 in May 2012, down from $192,000 in May 2011. Pending sales increased 21.83 percent, but closed sales fell 1.03 percent.
- Kitsap County – The median price for a home was $228,000 in May 2012, down from $237,000 in May 2011. Pending sales increased 32.69 percent, but closed sales fell 3.08 percent.
Statewide, the median price rose about $2,500 to $242,500. Pending sales were up 21.64 percent while closed sales were up 1.04 percent.
NWMLS said the volume of closed sales topped the 6,000 mark for the first time since September 2007.
Month over month, median prices in King County rose about $5,000 from April. Snohomish County median prices rose about $8,000 and prices in Pierce County stayed steady. Median prices statewide rose $2,000 from April.
“The six month trend of low listing inventory continues to cause strong buyer competition for homes close to job centers,” said Northwest MLS director Joe Spencer.
With the record low mortgage rates available today, buying a
home is the smarter move instead of renting, and hear is why:
- Rents will increase over time as inflation increases
- Locking into a low fixed rate mortgage will keep your housing expenses low, and over time you will hedge well against inflation, which means more disposable income for other expenses in life
- At some point homes will completely recover to the highs of years ago.
History always repeats itself and
real estate runs in 10 – 14 year cycles, so we are now 5 or 9 years away from
very large gains for today’s home buyers.
