Weekly Scorecard 4-26-10
Well at least I am getting this weekly post done within the week. Good news is that things seem to be getting busier. Overall some of the same trends continue with increasing inventories and steady sales. The pendings this week appear to be up and very few short sales or bank owned homes. The Sellers that are in the market appear to be accepting market pricing. East Bellevue saw a jump in listed invetories to 276 from 268. The other areas held steady. I expect the inventory numbers to be peaking and hold steady but let’s see what happens.
The other big issue affecting the markets in the next couple of months is the expiration of the first time buyer tax credit. On the Eastside my antidotal observation was that generally the homes that qualify at around $300,000 are bank owned and in horrible shape and those homes have been mainly picked up by investors or fix and flip buyers. Condos on the Eastside have benefitted from the first time home buyer tax credit. My personal opinion is that low prices and low interest rates have more of an effect on housing than the first time home buyer tax credit. Local companies seem to be doing better and that seems to be supporting sales for now with the low interest rates and house prices.
The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 4-26-10