Business

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 Snohomish County home sales, prices droop Herald staff EVERETT -- Home sales and prices in Snohomish County continued to slump in April, according to the latest numbers from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The combined median price for local houses and condominiums was $330,000 last month, a 5.7 percent drop from the $349,950 median price posted a year ago. Inventory increased by nearly 37 percent, rising to 7,456 homes on the county market. Pending sales dropped by nearly 42 percent, and the 732 completed sales marked a nearly 40 percent drop from a year ago. The numbers were similar to what they have been since last fall, when prices and sales began to drop. Unlike many areas of the country, the local price drops have been in single digit numbers. In Snohomish County, median prices stayed around $350,000 from August through November, then dropped to $340,000 in December, $344,500 in ­January, $329,950 in February and $335,000 in March. King County posted a slight gain in prices of 0.67 percent in April. There, median prices hit $415,000 in August, dipped each subsequent month to $389,500 in December and rose steadily to last month's figure of $410,000. Condo prices, which had been rising in Snohomish County in recent months, also dipped last month. The median condo price, $230,000, was 5.15 percent less than the year-ago figure of $242,500. That may due partly to the large number of condos on the market -- 1,393 in April. That was a 96 percent increase on the number of condos for sale one year ago. Buyers closed on 155 condos last month, a 33 percent drop from the 232 sold last year.

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