"Housing news still not so cheery" by Everyday Business

Housing news still not so cheery

Blog: Everyday Business

December 22, 2010

This holiday, we hope your home is warm, comfortable and filled with cheery sights and sounds of the season. Cuz you may be there awhile — at least until the housing market perks up.

Wenatchee-area home sales continued to slip in November — dollar volume is down 14 percent so far this year — and most of those sales (71 percent) have come from houses priced at $250,000 and lower.

Those are some of the latest figures released this week from our friends at Pacific Appraisal Associates, a local real estate appraisal and consulting company.

Here's another lump-o'-coal in your stocking: year-to-date unit sales through November (484) are down more than 50 percent from the same month in 2006, when home sales hit 975.

Yipes, you say. Isn't there any good news? Well, prices seem relatively stable. The median price of $225,000 is up 1 percent over November 2009, and the average price of $245,151 is down only 2 percent.

Here are a few more tidbits to digest during Christmas week:

• Home sales for just the month of November slipped from 47 to 33 from the same time last year. That's a 30 percent drop.

• For the year, unit listings are up about 3 percent to 1,259. Dollar volume of listed homes is holding steady at about $378 million.

• High-priced homes continue to sell slowly. Anything priced above $350,000 could take 16 to 18 months to sell. And the local market has a 58-month supply of homes priced at $500,000.

• Condo vacancies (for rentals) soared in November to 9 percent. That's a 200 percent climb over November 2009. Meanwhile the market is strengthening in other rental categories. Vacancies have declined in single- and multi-family homes by about 30 percent.

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