WA Pending Sales Drop Slightly

Pending Sales Drop Slightly, But Prices for Western Washington Homes Still Rising

KIRKLAND, Wash. (Dec. 6, 2005) – Housing activity in Western Washington showed mixed results in November, with the volume of pending sales declining slightly from 12 months ago – but prices continued to rise.
According to just-released figures from Northwest Multiple Listing Service, brokers across 15 counties reported 7,649 pending sales during November -- 97 fewer pending transactions (offers made and accepted, but not yet closed) than the same month a year ago. That amounts to a decline of 1.25 percent, marking the first drop in pending sales since January 2004.
Nine of the 15 counties in the MLS market area experienced drops in the volume of pending sales last month. (Two other counties, Okanogan and Whatcom, became part of NWMLS earlier this year but are excluded from the year-ago comparisons.)
Other key indicators tracked by the multiple listing service showed gains compared to 12 months ago:
MLS members added 345 more new listings of single family homes and condominiums to inventory compared to a year ago, for a 4.4 percent increase.
A comparison of total active inventory of single family homes and condominiums shows there are 296 more listings area-wide than at this time a year ago (22,013 versus 21,717).
Brokers reported a 4.7 increase in the number of closed sales compared to 12 months ago.
Prices are up 16.45 percent from a year ago.
Of the six counties reporting increases in pending sales from a year ago, San Juan County claimed the largest percentage increase (35.7%), followed by Grant (27.7%), Cowlitz (14.3%) and Snohomish (9.3%).
Five counties reported double-digit improvement in inventory (Grays Harbor, Kitsap, Pierce, Skagit and Thurston); five other counties had single-digit gains and five counties had declines from a year ago.
The selection remains smaller than year-ago levels in Grant, King, Kittitas, San Juan and Snohomish counties. In King County, where about one-third of the MLS inventory is located, the number of active listings is down about 12.7 percent from a year ago.
Condominium inventory is down sharply from a year ago. At month end, there were 2,440 condo listings in the MLS system, 579 fewer offerings than a year ago (down 19.2 percent). The selection in King County is at about 70 percent of year-ago levels.
All but one county in the NWMLS system reported double-digit price jumps for homes that sold and closed last month compared to 12 months ago. In the four-county Puget Sound region, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties all reported gains of around 20 percent, while in King County prices rose around 14.7 percent.
The median price for last month’s completed sales of homes and condominiums in King County rose from $305,000 a year ago to $350,000. For single family homes only (excluding condominiums), the median selling rice was $389,000, up about $53,000 (15.8 percent) from a year ago.
Affordability continues to be a concern for local brokers. According to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) for the third quarter of 2005, only 34.7 percent of homes in Seattle that sold during that period were affordable to families earning that area’s median income of $73,000. That survey pegged the median sales price at $325,000.
Northwest Multiple Listing Service, based in Kirkland and owned by its member brokers, serves 17 counties, mostly in Western Washington, plus Grant, Kittitas and Okanogan counties in the central part of the state. It encompasses more than 2,000 companies with approximately 25,000 sales associates.

The Changing Market and Mortgage Applications

Apps upWASHINGTON, D.C. (December 7, 2005) — The Mortgage Bankers Association(MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the weekending December 2. The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loanapplication volume was 656.7 -- an increase of 5.2 percent on a seasonallyadjusted basis from 624.1, one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, theIndex increased 46.8 percent compared with the previous week but was down6.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index increased by 4.0 percent to 495.1from 476.2 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index increased by 7.0percent to 1596.4 from 1484.3 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjustedindex activity includes the Conventional Index, which increased 5.1percent to 981.8 from 933.8 the previous week, and the Government Index,which increased 6.6 percent to 114.0 from 106.9 the previous week.The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index isdown 0.2 percent to 643.5 from 644.6. The four week moving average is up1.6 percent to 480.4 from 473.0 for the Purchase Index while this averageis down 3.1 percent to 1591.8 from 1642.4 for the Refinance Index.The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 41.0 percent oftotal applications from 39.1 percent the previous week. Theadjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 33.1 percentof total applications from 33.0 percent the previous week.The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgagesincreased to 6.32 percent from 6.20 percent on week earlier, with pointsincreasing to 1.30 from 1.17 (including the origination fee) for 80percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgagesincreased to 5.84 percent from 5.72 percent, with points increasing to1.37 from 1.26 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.49percent from 5.39 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.91from 0.96 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.**SPECIAL NOTES**The survey covers approximately 50 percent of all U.S. retail residentialmortgage originations, and has been conducted weekly since 1990.Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Baseperiod and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.------------------------------