Summer Numbers

Three people commented similarly on my recent newsletters and blog posts, noting that I had drifted away from numbers; drifted away from being, well, nerdy. I instead wrote about a new restaurant (Marrow), the exciting opening of the LeMay Car Museum, and I criticized our local paper for clumsy wording in a real estate story. Maybe criticizing a newspaper is also nerdy. I will disappoint those three people this month with a quick return trip down nerd lane. I am just very excited to see statistics that aren’t depressing.

I pulled active and pending sales for Tacoma’s North End, looking for how well inventory is being absorbed in each price range. I did the same study last August. The charts appear below. We are in a MUCH better place this summer than last. Then we had too much inventory in every single price bracket and few sales. Really the only category that was even remotely balanced was below $200,000. Today everything up to half a million is very strong. The market for homes up to $450,000 favors sellers, with more than half as many pending transactions as active listings. This range is seeing upward pressure on market values as well as shorter market times. It’s good news.

The LA Times reports home builder confidence saw its biggest spike in a decade this month. I think that tracks the mood of the general public as well. People are recognizing that prices and interest rates are favorable and that the outlook for values is good.

Hope you are having a great summer.

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