Real Estate Sounder

Graph comparing total home sales in Kitsap County with distressed REO & Short Sales through Decemeber 2011

(For the most recent data, go here )

This graph shows monthly data for the number and percentage of distressed home sales (comprised of REO’s (bank owned, foreclosures) and Short Sales), compared with total home sales in Kitsap County.  The current data is through the end of December 2011 and includes 18 months of prior data.

Sales of distressed properties increased 7% from the previous month, to a total of 34% of all homes sold in Kitsap County for the month of December 2011.  As you can see by looking at the graph, this approaching the upper end of the range we’ve seen for over 18 months.  I find it very interesting to see how relatively consistent the sales of distressed properties is as a percentage of total monthly home sales in Kitsap County, month over month for over 2 years running.

-Brian Wilson, Broker
John L. Scott Real Estate – Poulsbo

Graph of Home Sales & Prices in Kitsap County for 19 Months, through Dec 2011

{Note: In the event you got to this article from an older link, here is a link to the newest data for this category of monthly home sales in Kitsap County}

December had an almost identical number of single family home sales in Kitsap County compared to the prior month, though prices slipped, with the average sale dropping by nearly 4% compared to the Sales data for November.  Since this particular data set and chart includes all Single Family Residential Home Sales for all of Kitsap County and averages that data, if we see higher numbers of lower end sales and distressed property sales, then the averages will decline and this is what I believe occurred in December.  In fact December did have a 7% rise in the proportion of Sales that were “distressed properties”, including REO’s (bank owned foreclosures), & Short Sales, so this accounts for the decline in the average sale price.

Month over month Sales of other non-distressed similar homes, remained stable and in fact while we do continue to see declines at the low end of the market (REO properties in dis-repair) and Short Sales, other market segments have actually improved month over month. Please refer to the related post for comparison of total home sales with distressed property sales.

Thank you for visiting our blog.  We hope you have found it helpful or at least interesting and we welcome your comments or suggestions in the comment section below.  Also, if you did find it interesting, we would appreciate it if you would share it with your sphere using the sharing buttons at the bottom of the page.

-Brian Wilson, Broker
John L. Scott Real Estate – Poulsbo

Distressed home sales (Bank Owned & Short Sales) in Kitsap County for 18 months, through November 2011

(For the most recent data, go here )

As you can see on the graph, for the month of November, there was a 7% decrease in distressed property sales in Kitsap County, from 34% of total homes Sold, down to 27%.  I don’t believe there have been any fundamental improvements to account for this decrease, and I fully expect to see the percentages increase and trend up in future months.  

Beginning with the November data, I am showing the number of Short Sales that comprise the distressed properties Sold.  So now you can quickly and easily determine the number and percentage that Short Sales comprise of the total amount of distressed homes sold.  Of course, you can also then quickly infer the percentage of distressed properties that are Bank Owned Sales.  With respect to distressed property sales, the data for Kitsap County has been closely echoing the National trends.

Data from DSNews and other sources indicate a swelling shadow inventory of Bank Owned foreclosed properties.  The shadow inventory are properties that have been foreclosed but are just sitting on the banks books and have not yet been put on the market for sale.  The other factor which implies a significant ongoing inventory of Bank Owned properties are the latest reports indicating that while new defaults (borrowers who are late with their mortgage payments) have decreased slightly, actual foreclosures hit an all time high last month.  So, it appears the bank owned inventory of foreclosed homes is growing faster than they are selling them.

We hope you find this information helpful and we welcome any of your comments below.  We’d like to know your thoughts about our Blog, the market or anything Real Estate related.

Thank You for Visiting,
Brian & Jana, Broker & Managing Broker
John L. Scott Real Estate – Poulsbo

{Note: In the event you got to this article from an older link, here is a link to the newest data for this category of monthly home sales in Kitsap County}

November was a pretty good month for single family residential home sales in Kitsap County.  The graph shows the total number of homes sold (186), and contains pricing data for the original asking price, the price at which an offer was received and the final selling price.

While the number of homes sold declined from the previous month, they were almost identical to the number of sales for the same month one year ago.  The average selling price was up 3.2% from the same period one year ago and the time on market is also about identical for this same time a year ago.

The average selling price was up 6.9% from the previous month!  My best explanation for this large monthly average selling price gain is that there have been fewer new home listings compared with home sales, so the inventory of available resale homes has been tightening.

The other significant factor positively affecting prices is that the percentage of home sales comprised of “distressed properties”, those that are REO (bank owned foreclosures) and Short Sales decreased from 34% to 27% of the total number of homes Sold for the month of November.

Overall, it appears we are recovering from the gyrations in sales created by the first time home buyer tax credits and appear to be settling back into more normal seasonal sales and pricing patterns.  Of course, our market is still going to be heavily impacted by distressed property sales for the foreseeable future due to a huge shadow inventory of Bank Owned foreclosed homes, but there are definitely positive developments appearing in our Kitsap County Real Estate Market.

Now, more than ever, Real Estate prices are very local centric and dependent heavily upon factors occurring neighborhood by neighborhood.  Neighborhoods with large numbers of distressed properties will continue to have heavy pricing pressure, while those with fewer distressed properties appear to have firming pricing trends.

If you have been watching the Real Estate market and waiting for the right time to jump in, and you plan to hold the property for 5+ years, then I’d say now is a pretty great time to jump in.  Interest rates are historically low, there are many compelling deals and it looks like employment in our region is going to be solid and improving.

We hope you are getting value from our Kitsap County Real Estate information.  Soon, we’ll be posting some of our thoughts about where we are seeing some of the best values (homes on acreage, view properties, waterfront, and……yes, even multi-family properties).   We hope you’ll subscribe to the RSS feed so you will be first to see our latest thoughts.  Also, please let us know what you think and leave us your comments.

Thank You,
Brian & Jana, Broker & Managing Broker
John L. Scott Real Estate – Poulsbo

(For the most recent data, go here )

Here is a graph comparing total home sales in Kitsap County, with sales of foreclosed (bank owned) and “short sales” through the end of October 2011. 

Monthly distressed home sales compared to total home sales in Kitsap County

It also has 18 months of this data producing a trendline for distressed property sales in Kitsap County which has remained at a surprisingly consistent level for as long as the data has been gathered here.

We’d like to hear from you, so let us know in the comment area what you think of this data and the information we are providing.

Thank You for visiting,
Brian Wilson, Broker
John L. Scott Real Estate – Poulsbo

{Note: In the event you got to this article from an older link, here is a link to the newest data for this category of monthly home sales in Kitsap County}

The following graph shows the monthly total home sales and prices through October 2011 and includes 18 months of data.

Home sales & prices in Kitsap County through October 2011

The prices are averages, and include the original asking price, the price at which an offer was received and the actual selling price.

October was a good month for total sales with 50% being closed in the last week of the month.  I guess that’s why it seemed so busy in the last week of the month, it was!  Sales were also significantly higher than the same period a year ago.  Comparing number of homes sold, October 2011 was 50% above the October 2010 levels!  The average selling price, however; declined by 3.7% compared to the same period a year ago.

Total monthly sales were nearly 20% higher for October than the previous month, but the number of distressed properties sold increased toward their higher running average, comprising 34% of total sales.

-Brian Wilson, Broker
John L. Scott Real Estate – Poulsbo