Weekly Scorecard 2-14-11
The sales nunbers are strong and the inventories are still decreasing. East Bellevue (MLS Area 530) has seen a drop in home inventories to only a 163 homes this week. This inventory peaked in July at 294 homes and in November was 251 homes. If you look at the MLS stats and the Altos graphs you can see pricing is stabilizing with zipcodes 98004, 98005 and 98008 showing bottoming or increases. The 98008 zipcode had been dreadful for the last couple of years but there is a large influx of Microsoft buyers as the comapny is now hiring and and many buyers have been renting sitting on the sidelines. The closed sales numbers were strong but the pending sales seem to be at a lowere level than in previous weeks. Given the reduction in inventory this not unexpected.
In the last two years the buyer has been rewarded for waiting. Now with the prices stabilizing and a lack of inventory sitting on the side lines may not be the best strategy. Pricing is still week but it is looking like that the forced selling is being wrung out of the market. Present sellers who do not have to sell still do not like the pricing and they are the ones now waiting out the market waiting for a price bump before selling. There are a lot of leased homes out there and future inventory that can be berought to the market. The next month will be critical which way this tips. It appears this market is heading fore gridlock, Buyers demanding low prices and sellers witholding their inventory until they see prices rise. Let’s see how this plays out over the next month.
The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 2-14-11