Mukilteo Market Stats - May

I am bringing a new feature to this blog, which if nothing else will ensure that I post here at least once a month. I've decided to begin posting market statistics for the city of Mukilteo once a month--I'm starting with the month of May 2007.

In case anyone is wondering, now is a great time to buy real estate. And it's a good time to sell too, as long as you list your home at a reasonable price. By reasonable I do not mean LOW, I simply mean a price that is in line with the market. The reality is, 20% increases in housing prices every year are not sustainable unless we are all getting 20% raises every year, which I would submit we are not. I think we are moving out of that crazy seller's market, which is a good thing, as buyers have been getting the short end of the stick for several years now.

The big difference I am seeing between this year and last is that there is a lot more inventory on the market. Some of it is selling quickly, and some of it is not. Overall however, time on market is definitely up as compared to this time last year. Oddly, sale prices are up as well.

The usual relationship between time on market and sale price is that as time on market increases, sale price decreases, time on market being a pretty good indicator of demand for housing. But that pattern is not what we're seeing this year. We have a lot more supply than last year. But that doesn't necessarily mean oversupply, because if you were paying attention last year, you would have noticed that we had too few homes listed, which was driving prices up. Now we have lots of homes listed, but demand is still healthy enough to prevent any reductions in price. However, buyers definitely have a lot more homes to choose from.

Having more choices means buyers can now be more selective. Homes that aren't in good condition or that are over-priced are now sitting on the market, where a year or two ago, buyers' desperation to get into a home meant that even overpriced, ugly houses weren't too difficult to sell. One thing to note is that 57% of homes in Mukilteo that were on the market in May sold within 30 days. That is still a market where if your home is well-prepared and priced correctly, you are still very likely going to be able to sell it without much difficulty. Note also that Mukilteo has a lot of luxury properties, and those tend to take longer to sell.

By and large we're not seeing prices come down, but as you would expect we are seeing some fairly significant reductions (5% or more) among homes that have been on the market longer than 90 days. I would submit that those homes were overpriced anyway, and the price reductions are bringing them in line with where they should be.

That's my analysis, here's the data. All statistics are courtesy of the NWMLS, and include Mukilteo (in city limits) ONLY for the period May 1, 2007 through May 31, 2007:

Active Listings
Listing Count: 89
Average Time On Market: 90 Days
Median List Price: $582,450
Average $ Square Foot: $264

Under Contract (includes Contingent, Active STI and Pending):
Listing Count: 19
Average Time On Market: 86 Days
Median List Price: $595,845
Average $ Square Foot: $294

Sold Listings
Listing Count: 21
Average Time On Market: 90 Days
Median Sale Price: $434,000
Average $ Square Foot: $247

Here are a couple of statistical charts, courtesy of NWMLS. The first one shows the breakdown of how our inventory in Mukilteo is aging. You can see that even with all the inventory, 57% of listings still sell within 30 days. The second chart shows the relationship between list and sale price, illustrating that price reductions are tied to time on market.