Peninsula Daily News
and The Associated Press
Sales of existing homes in Jefferson County surged in the first three months of the year, while prices fell.
Sales were up 25.6 percent over the last quarter of 2011 and up that same percentage from the first quarter of 2011, according to a report by the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Washington.
Clallam County’s sales were less impressive — up only 1 percent in the first quarter of the year from the last quarter of 2011 and virtually unchanged from the first quarter of 2011.
Jefferson County’s seasonally adjusted sales rate during the first quarter was 490, meaning that if the sales rate for the quarter continued for a year, that number of homes would be sold in 2012.
Clallam’s sales rate was 970.
The median sales price of homes in Jefferson County was $227,900 in the first quarter, a decline of 12.3 percent over the same quarter a year ago.
In Clallam, the median was $169,300, a drop of 4 percent from the first quarter a year ago.
Statewide, first-quarter sales were up 7.9 percent from the previous quarter and 11.3 percent higher than a year ago.
Overall, sales returned to a level close to the average of the past 20 years, reflecting a return to the market by first-time and move-up buyers, and continued interest in distressed properties by investors, said Glenn Crellin, associate director for research at the center.
“The prevalence of distressed properties in some neighborhoods held prices back,” Crellin said.
In areas with more desirable properties, he said, prices are up because fewer distressed properties are holding the market back.
The report found that median prices continued to fall, down 8.7 percent from the same period in 2011.
The state’s seasonally adjusted sales rate during the quarter was 97,000 homes, 7.9 percent above the last quarter of 2011, the report said.
But the median sales price in the first-quarter median fell to $208,300.
Crellin said the drop in the state’s median price does not mean prices of individual homes are uniformly continuing to decline.
Rather, falling prices are primarily in neighborhoods with a significant number of homes at some stage of foreclosure.
Nine counties reported higher median prices, the report said.
Among Washington’s urban counties, the greatest quarterly gain in sales was 33 percent in Chelan County, while the greatest decline, 7.1 percent, was in Whatcom County.
Among the urban markets, median home prices ranged from a high of $322,400 in King County to a low of $128,000 in Asotin County.
The combination of lower median prices and low interest rates means the affordability of homes has not been higher in the past 20 years.
According to the center’s HAI — Housing Affordability Index — a median-income family in the state had 84.7 percent more income than the minimum required to buy a median-price home, assuming a 20 percent down payment.
In Jefferson County, the rate was 46.5 percent.
In Clallam, it was a more affordable 81.1 percent.
The data showed that in all 39 counties in the state, a median-income family could afford a median-priced home.
