Archive for the ‘Real Estate Market Reviews’ Category
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Mar
15
Posted by Matt Thomson
Here’s a quick look at the February real estate numbers for Gig Harbor. There were only 24 single family home and condo sales in all of Gig Harbor (zip codes 98332, 98333, and 98335) this past month (only 1 condo, 23 homes). This is down from 28 sales in February of ‘09.
Our low sales price was $175,000, and the high was $1.25M, with a median sales price of $311,500. That is way down from a median of $387,148 this month last year (last February’s low was $158,000 and the high was $815,00).
Remarkably, 18 of the 24 home sales in Gig Harbor last month were homes under $350,000. So what does this mean for real estate in Gig Harbor? Is it really an indication that prices are still falling? Not really. It’s not so much a matter of prices still falling; it’s more an issue of the lower end homes being the homes that are selling. Bottom line has always been the same…if you are thinking of selling your home in Gig Harbor, it’s important to price it at the lower end of the competition, have it show better than the competition, and market it more widely than the competition. If you’re hoping to buy a home in Gig Harbor, the time is still ripe (and most likely will be for a while). I’d be happy to chat with you more if you’ve got questions about your home or the Gig Harbor real estate market in general.
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Feb
23
Posted by Matt Thomson
At one time, short sales and foreclosures in Gig Harbor didn’t seem like they’d be a big issue. Now, they’re a very important part of the real estate industry. Yet there’s still a lot of confusion about the difference and implications of the two. Here’s a brief really brief summary of the short sale and foreclosures in Gig Harbor.
A short sale, in short, is anything but short. What “short sale” means is that the owner is trying to sell the house for less than what is still owed to the bank. Imagine someone bought a house for $400,000 in 2007, took out a $375,000 mortgage, and now needs to sell because their job is moving them out of state. Their house is now only worth $340,000, so their sale will come up more than $30,000 “short” of what they owe the bank. In short sales, owners may or may not be making their payments still…that’s not really the issue. It’s simply a matter of owing more than the house is worth.
Foreclosures, on the other hand, are homes owned by the bank. You’ll hear these called REO properties as well. Foreclosure properties are generally easier to purchase, as you’re just dealing with the bank and they already know their numbers. Short sales, however, can take months, several months actually, to complete. You’re dealing directly with the owner as the seller, but the owner needs to get bank approval, and the bank needs to run through all of their checklists to ensure that the seller really can’t pay off the difference. It’s not uncommon in a short sale for a buyer to make an offer, and find out 3 months down the road that the bank said “no.”
Short sales aren’t necessarily something to run away from, unless you’re in a time crunch (like trying to qualify for the tax credits). You can get fantastic deals on short sales, you just have to be patient, and try to remain emotionally unattached. It also helps to hire the right short sale coordinators (like me!) to walk you through the process.
Short sales are a part of the real estate landscape now, even in Gig Harbor. Currently there are 72 homes and 6 condos in Gig Harbor listed as short sales in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). Couple that with the 31 homes and 1 condo in Gig Harbor listed as “bank owned” and you’ve got over 17% of the total listed inventory.
If you’re looking to buy a home, either a primary home, vacation home, or investment property, in the Gig Harbor area and would like more information on short sales and bank owned homes, please give me a call. If you feel you may need to short sell your home, I can give you guidance there as well.
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Feb
12
Posted by Matt Thomson
Since we’re half way through February, let’s take a look at the January real estate stats for Gig Harbor. Overall, things were a bit slow. Here’s the skinny:
Single Family Homes
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Units sold: 20
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Median Price: $326,000
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Current Inventory: 506
Condos
- Units sold: 3
- Median Price: $150,000
- Current Inventory: 68
So what do these numbers tell us about real estate in Gig Harbor? One, it’s still very much a buyer’s market. With 25 months of inventory for homes, and 22.6 months of inventory for condos, there’s still A LOT of choices for buyers. It also shows that prices took a bit of a dip. Mostly, however, I think that it shows that January was kind of a stinker month after several good months in a row!
If you’ve got any questions about your home’s worth, inventory counts or sales in a particular neighborhood in Gig Harbor, or any other real estate related questions, please let me know!
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Jan
06
Posted by Matt Thomson
Yesterday I gave you my 2009 Gig Harbor real estate year in review from a little different perspective. Today we’ll take a look at the statistics and market review for Gig Harbor home sales.
First, let’s just take a look at December’s home sales numbers. This past month, Gig Harbor (zip codes 98335, 98332, and 98333) had 44 single family homes sell. That’s a nice improvement from the 31 that sold in December of ‘08. The median sales price for December was $411,875, slightly better than last December’s $407,900. The trend of increased volume is pretty consistent for this year, as the chart below shows.
Overall, 2009 was a much better year for real estate in Gig Harbor than 2008. Gig Harbor saw 507 single family homes sell (and 33 condos) with a median home price of $397,000. That represents an 18% increase in home sales over 2008, but a 2.5% drop in median sales price. Overall, a much better year.
The chart above shows a break down of the single family home and condo sales in Gig Harbor by price range. A whopping 51.7% of all homes and condos that sold in Gig Harbor this year were priced between $250,000 and $450,000. The chart below shows the average number of days on market for the homes that sold, as well as the percentage of actual sales price versus final listing price, broken down by how long the home was on the market.
If there are specific areas of Gig Harbor that you’d like to know about, or even any of the surrounding areas, please let me know. If you are curious about what your home may be worth today, I am happy to give a no cost, no obligation market analysis.
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Dec
17
Posted by Matt Thomson
With Christmas right around the corner, I figured it’s about time I posted November’s home sale statistics for Gig Harbor. November was a pleasantly productive month for real estate in the Gig Harbor area, especially when compared with last year. When I talk about “Gig Harbor,” I refer to zip codes 98335, 98332, and 98333 (which is actually Fox Island). I do not include Key Peninsula in my Gig Harbor search.
So…looking just at single family home sales in Gig Harbor, there were 42 homes that sold at a median price of $407,000. Last November, only 22 homes sold, and the median sales price was $318,608. That’s (obviously) a HUGE difference! The 42 sales is actually the 6th highest total we’ve seen in the past 24 months! Not bad for a time that is supposed to be seasonally “down.” As someone recently said, there may not be a winter season in real estate this year…the market is so topsy-turvy that seasonal factors may not be prevalent this year.
Key Peninsula only had 18 sales, with a median price of $242,500. Port Orchard, like the Harbor, saw a big increase with 70 sales (compared to 42 last year) with a median price of $233,500. Below is a look at the past 2 years of single family home sales in our area.
There’s one statistic that I’d like to point out special this time. Price is obviously one of the most difficult decisions to make when listing your home for sale. The common desire of home sellers is to list high to leave some wiggle room in there, or counter act “low ball offers.” What is often missed is that by over pricing the home from the start, you ultimately can end up losing a lot of money and time. Look at this graph that shows the relationship between % of sales price versus list price and days on the market. Notice how homes that sell most quickly also sell for the highest percentage of listing price. In other words, homes that are priced right at the beginning sell the quickest for the most.
If you’d like specific home sale information on your home or your Gig Harbor neighborhood, please give me a call or email me!
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Dec
01
Posted by Matt Thomson
As a Realtor, I like to keep tabs on the Gig Harbor real estate market, and part of that includes analyzing Gig Harbor’s market share by real estate company. Here’s the funny thing, I can’t claim to be #1. My company, Keller Williams Real Estate, isn’t #1 in Gig Harbor market share or closed sales. We’re actually #3 in both, but I still believe this is the greatest company to work for and work with. But I digress. Just for kicks, here’s a look at the market share of Gig Harbor’s top real estate companies.
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The chart above shows the top 10 real estate offices by number of properties listed in all of Gig Harbor. This includes single family homes, condos, vacant land and multi-family homes in Gig Harbor, Fox Island, and the Key Peninsula.
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This shows the total number of properties sold in 2009 (buyers and sellers). Property type and areas are the same in this chart as they are in the previous. Interesting that the top 4 companies are the same in both charts. While JLS has 2.95% more properties listed than Keller Williams, we are only 1.1% behind them in total sales. We’re about 6% behind Windermere in both categories.
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These graphs are from a great website, compete.com. They show the number of unique visitors that websites receive in a side-by-side comparison. KW.com receives nearly 100,000 more visitors each month than Windermere.com, and 160,000 per month more than johnlscott.com. While both of the other two sites have seen a roughly 10% increase in web traffic this past year, KW.com has seen a nearly 42% jump in traffic! Why is this significant to Gig Harbor home sales? Relocation.
Many of the people moving to Gig Harbor have never heard of the local leaders, while Keller Williams is the 3rd largest real estate company in the nation, thus providing a national presence that other companies can’t match. Similarly, if you are moving from Gig Harbor to another state, chances are you’ll find a KW agent to help you find your new home as well.
So, what does all of this really mean? Not much. Real estate is a local business that is ultimately decided by the agent, not the company. As I’ve mentioned before, I chose Keller Williams for two reasons. 1) The culture. The company’s beliefs and values match up with mine, and the atmosphere around the office is infectious. I love the energy, I love the sharing, I love the positive attitude. 2) The tools. As an independent business owner, I wanted to associate myself with the company that offered me the best tools that would allow me to serve my customers as best as possible. Other companies offer more advertising, or more local name recognition, or tools for marketing myself as an agent, but I wasn’t interested in those things as much as I was interested in tools (like this blog) that allowed me to bring value to my customers.
So why write this blog? ‘Cause I like stats, I like comparisons, and I like educating people!
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Nov
20
Posted by Matt Thomson
Looking at the October real estate statistics for Gig Harbor can be a bit confusing. Statistics often are. We can make them look good. We had more sales in October of ‘09 than we did in ‘08, and the median price was $47,000 higher this year than last. We can make them look bad. October saw the fewest number of home sales in Gig Harbor since April. So let’s not make any judgements and just look at the numbers.
37 single family homes sold in Gig Harbor (98335, 98332, 98333) during October, with a median sales price of $400,000. October of ‘08 had 32 sales with a median price of $352,500. However, the median sales price per square foot was $166.27 in Oct ‘08, while this October the cost per sq ft dropped to $149.58. The Key Peninsula saw a nice uptick in sales, with 24 sales at a median price of $260,750. That’s the 2nd highest volume month in over 2 years for Key Peninsula real estate (behind June’s 26 sales).
Fox Island (98333), taken seperately, continues to struggle. Only 2 homes sold on Fox Island this past month, with a median sales price of $326,250. In the first 10 months of ‘09 Fox Island has seen only 34 total home sales, with a median price of $497,500. There are 66 homes currently for sale on Fox Island (nearly 2 years worth of inventory) with a median list price of $599,925. A $100,000 discrepancy between list price and sale price, with 2 years inventory, makes Fox Island a pretty tough sell right now.
So what does all of this mean? Probably nothing. I don’t think that this year is going to follow any traditional seasonal sales cycles. With stabilizing prices, interest rates that are bound to increase soon, shrinking inventory, and tax credits that won’t last forever (who knows, the government may extend them forever), I think home sales will continue to remain steady throughout the winter. Bottom line is that home affordability (prices, interest rates, and income combined) is at a very high level, which is a good thing. Gig Harbor is a desirable place to live, and people will continue to buy homes here.
If you’d like to know more specific numbers about a specific Gig Harbor neighborhood, please let me know and I’d be happy to run the numbers for you.
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Nov
07
Posted by Matt Thomson
By now you’ve all heard that the “First-time homebuyers” tax credit has been extended to April of next year. You’ve heard that some existing home buyers are now eligible for a credit as well. In my industry, this is viewed as a huge win, a great success, a saving move by the government to keep our business alive. So why am I not excited? Really, I wish the extension hadn’t happened. Unlike NAR and seemingly every other Realtor I know, I don’t think this is a good move. Why?
For starters, I think we’re further creating a false market. Ever since our new administration took office, a TON (TON TON TON) of money has been thrown at bailout packages. This is just a housing bailout plan. At some point the markets will need to correct themselves, and there’ll be some pain in that process, but on the other end our nation’s and our personal economies will be better for it.
Secondly, we’ve just erased any true sense of urgency buyers should have, and urgency is often what spurs sales. I like stimulus ideas. I think it’s necessary to do something to entice people to get back into the market and buy houses again. Real estate always has been, still remains, and will always be a good investment…largely because it’s REAL. You get a HOME when you buy real estate, not just a slip of paper. If you buy a home, in the long run it’s a pretty safe bet historically that your value will increase, and in the meantime you get a HOME. So I don’t mind stimulating the home buying process…once. But an extension like this basically takes all the wind out of the sails, tells those who bought before the deadline that they were duped, and tells those who waited to buy that waiting is a good idea. Deadlines don’t mean anything, we’ll just keep extending the rewards and keep holding interest rates low for you.
Realtors have spent the past 6 or 7 months screaming “BUY NOW” to beat the deadline. What do we scream now? “BUY NOW! I mean it this time! Really, this time it’s real.” There’s only so many times you can cry wolf and still get the people to pay attention.
Want a far more eloquent statement of why I’m not excited? Read Danilo Bogdonovic’s blog to hear my thoughts put more coherently.
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Nov
03
Posted by Matt Thomson
Looking at home sales in Gig Harbor can be confusing at times. Statistics can be twisted and presented in many different ways, not giving a misleading look at the market but various perspectives. Below are a few charts that were shared with me that I found interesting. Break downs of the various Gig Harbor zip codes (98335, 98332, and 98333), with waterfront home sales removed.
Here’s a look at 98332 and 98335 combined. These numbers are through the middle of October.
Here is a look at Fox Island (98333). Fox Island is VERY slow without the waterfront homes (pretty slow, with, too).
These numbers are pretty self explanitory, I just thought you may be interested in seeing the home sales in Gig Harbor on paper. If you’ve got any questions or would like a more specific breakdown, let me know!
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Oct
13
Posted by Matt Thomson
How about we take a look at the September home sales in Gig Harbor? I realize I’ve gone away from the statistical blogs for a while here…not really intentionally, but this seems to have morphed more into a story telling type of blog. But I’m going to head back into a minor statistical mode here.
This past September, Gig Harbor (area codes 98335, 98332, and 98333) saw 54 single family homes sell. That’s the third highest total of ‘09 behind July’s 66 and May’s 55, and ahead of last September’s 47. The median sales price was $389,500 vs a median asking price of $397,000. Median Days on Market was down to 55. All of those numbers are pretty promising.
Another promising number is that there are currently 604 active home listings in Gig Harbor. While that’s nowhere near a small number, compare that to the 723 that were on the market at this time last year and it’s quite a change! We currently have about 11 months of inventory, compared to the 19 months we had last year. According to Realtor definitions, anything over 9 months of inventory still counts as a buyer’s market, so we’re nowhere near out of the woods yet, but we’re heading in the right direction.
If you are considering moving to Gig Harbor or trying to sell your home in Gig Harbor, please let me know. If there are any other statistics you’d like to know about the Gig Harbor real estate market, please ask!
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