Bellevue Real Estate » inventories

Weekly Scorecard 2-14-11

George Thurtle — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:01:51 +0000

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

Weekly Scorecard 2-7-11

George Thurtle — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 02:00:29 +0000

The inventories remain extremely low and sales are strong. Overall the inventories are the lowest they have been in years. I have speculated the reason for this is the declining amount of distressed inventory. If you view the February stats you will the overall trends point to declining inventopries but pricing remaions flat. The average per sq. ft. prices are remain flat por slightly down. Until these prices rise there will be no incentive for nondistressed sellers to briong propoerty to the market. The question is how long will this squeeze play occur.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 2-7-11

Weekly Scorecard 12-20-10

George Thurtle — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:28:17 +0000

Same trend continues of strong closed sales and falling inventory. The overall inventory in East Bellevue is the lowest I have ever seen it. Inventories do vary seasonally but this is very low even for this time of year. I am sure the inventories will increase at the first of the year but in my opinion it will not be as much as usual. The reason is that a lot of distressed inventory worked through the system in 2009 and not as much new inventory is coming on to replace it. Sellers who are not distressed are not choosing to participate in the market and sell until prices move up. That is the big question is when will prices start moving up. While inventories have been reduced and sales continue strong prices have not moved up. The average per sq. ft. sale prices remain stuck. I think the first of the year will bring a tug of war with newer inventory at higher overall prices and value conscious resistant buyers.

West Bellevue’s numbers were an anomally this week for the sold home numbers since a partially finished new construction was in there to throw off the numbers.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 12-20-10

Weekly Scorecard 7-12-10

George Thurtle — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:18:25 +0000

The story this week is two fold. Inventories keep gradually rising. However the big story is that ratio of closed saled to pending sales has equalized. If you were checking weeks prior you will remember while the closed sales number were pretty good the pending sale numbers were pretty low. The expiration of the tax credit seem to be the reason with a rush to get a home under contract prior to the April 30th expiration date. While in many price ranges on the Eastside the tax credit was not applicable to many buyers the market did seem to go somewhat in sympathy to it. Well this week the sale numbers were pretty good and the pending sale numbers were almost up there with the actual closed sales. We should be getting beyond the time period the tax credit has influenced the market and will get to see what the real underlying demand is in the next few weeks.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 7-12-10

Monthly Numbers

George Thurtle — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:37:38 +0000

The monthly numbers for Bellevue are now posted. Inventories are starting to rise a bit, but the sales were also very strong. Prices remain stable. The per sq. ft. sales numbers are very stable. West Bellevue is a little misleading because there were two large waterfront sales in those numbers. If you look at the trend line it is at $300 per sq. ft. for the baseline for west Bellevue. The blips up reflect one time large sales. All of the per sq. ft. sales graphs are very stable. The price averages move around as the size and style of the homes change. When the per sq. ft. prices start moving up it is a sign of appreciation.

Sellers seem to have seen the increased sales volumes and are starting to bring property to the market. It appears that as sales occur more inventory waits in the wings to be brought to the market and the market is in a churning mode.

Here is the link for the Stat: http://eastbellevuere.com/index.php/category/statistics/monthly/

Weekly Score 2-1-10

George Thurtle — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:52:16 +0000

The news this week inventories are steady or declining and sales volume is up. EB had 11 homes sold, WB had 8 homes and SB had 12. The pending were not as high but all except for WB which had just one pending still had good volumes. what is interesting is that this time of year you usually have rising inventories as seasonally more homes are brought to the market. It is hard to tell what the sales volume is since the sold homes still reflect December sales and the amount of pending sales in January converting to sold homes has not worked its way through the system

Here is the apreadsheet: Weekly scorecard 2-1-10