The sale of foreclosed homes and other distressed properties continued to have a big effect as both sales and prices dropped dramatically in Snohomish County in February.
The combined median price for both single-family homes and condominiums in the county last month was $228,250 — what peop
le were paying five years ago, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Thursday.
Bob Maple, owner-broker at the John L. Scott office in Everett, said bank-owned homes and short sales are reducing prices.
“The bank-owned (homes) drag down the prices,” he said. “These banks don’t like to sit on this stuff. It’s priced to sell.”
Maple said that in January more than 30 percent of the homes sold were by banks looking to get houses off their books.
Add short sales and the number is larger, complicating the county’s real estate market. “It’s a large chunk of the market,” Maple said.
He noted that for buyers, short sales and bank deals mean significantly lower prices.
“Buyers do pick up some pretty good bargains,” he said.
But he added that many agents don’t like dealing with short sales because finishing the deal can take as long as six months.
The lower prices can also affect selection because some sellers don’t want to compete with the low prices of distressed homes. In Snohomish County last month, inventory was down 8.65 percent from a year ago.
Maple said the distressed homes should continue to affect the county’s home market for some time because banks still have a lot of homes to sell. “They say we’ll have another year of this at least,” he said.
The median price for single-family homes was $242,000 last month, down 13.6 percent from February 2010. For condos the price was $162,617, down 27.7 percent from one year ago. Median means half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
In addition to falling prices, sales also fell last month. There were fewer than 500 homes sold in February, a drop of nearly 14 percent from a year ago.
By comparison, sales dropped less than 1 percent in King County, where prices fell 6.84 percent.
In February 2010, sales were stronger because many buyers were trying to make a deadline for the federal income tax break for home buyers. In addition, home sales in February typically are low. Sales generally pick up in the summer when school is out.
February home sales
Snohomish County
Listings: 4,729, down 8.65 percent.
Pending sales: 1,046, down 7.68 percent.
Closed sales: 494, down 13.94 percent.
Median price: $228,250, down 15.15 percent.
Island County
Listings: 833, down 13.86 percent.
Pending sales: 86, down 2.27 percent.
Closed sales: 47, down 25.4 percent.
Median price: $237,500, down 5.7 percent.
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