As a Realtor I am tired of listening to the gloom and doom of the national media on housing issues. What is going on in Florida, California and other parts of the country does not represent the market in Washington and most of all Gig Harbor. I am pleased to give you the facts about our market. The market here is stable and is a responsible marketplace for home buyers. The foreclosure rates today are the same today as they were 10 years ago. Fewer than 1% of mortgages end in default in Washington state. As of mid-June, sub-prime, adjustable-rate loans represented 20% of loans nationally, but just 6% of home loans in Washington. Home appreciation in Washington continues to out-perform the rest of the nation with year-to-year price increases every quarter since spring of 1995. Home prices in Washington have increased an average of 8.1% since the same time last year, according to WSU Center for Real Estate Research (CRER). Why is Washington different? The home market isn’t keeping pace with the growth of the state’s population, which is continuing to increase at 1.8% per year. According to the office of Washington State’s Financial Management, Washington state’s population will increase by nearly one million over the present decade. According to the Northwest Multiple Listing Statistics the median price for active listings in the Gig Harbor area is up 4.1% over last year, the median price for pending listings are the same from last year, and the median price for closed sales is up .3%.
What does that mean to you as a homeowner? It means the real estate market is stillthriving. Sellers who are employing knowledgeable real estate agents to properly price their homes and provide state of the art marketing are selling their homes in the shortest amount of time for the most amount of money. If you want to know what your real estate would bring in today’s market, how long it will take to sell , and the type of marketingit will take to produce buyers that will pay the market price call me at (253) 861-6805 or e-mail me at Realestate@darlenecherry.com you may be surprised at what you canlearn.
Darlene,
Thanks so much for sending this over in another format. I don’t have publisher on my laptop at home. I was going to have to wait and open it on my desktop in my office. Are these statistics real? So many Realtors are leaving or taking second jobs. As a lender, it isn’t quite so bad as we still have refinances. Still, it is much slower than last year. Maybe if the media would focus locally, instead of on nationally depressed markets. It would also help if they would stop saying “wait as there will be lower interest rates and more foreclosures.”
Thanks again for taking the time to phone me this evening. See you soon, Pam
Yes the stats are real, I pulled the information off of reliable websites. WSU Center for Real Estate Research (CRER), Washington State’s Financial Management’s website, and the Northwest Multiple Listing Service website. I agree that the market has slowed down but I got into this business in 1977 when it truly was a bad market and from I can see this is a normal market and right where we should be. The huge price spikes from 2004 to early 2006 were unrealistic and it was bound to adjust, however we are still showing increases in market value just not at 18%. It will force those to get out of the business who just got into it for the fast dollar but those of us who are truly professionals and who are on top of what is going on will do just fine. My business is doing very well. Those people who choose to wait to buy will be the people who will pay higher prices, and those who are looking at the foreclosure market will have slim pickings, and will be subject to lenders approval in short sales. I am seeing people who have a good business sense buying and investing. This is a good time to be adding real estate to the financial portfolio. I have attached a few articles that may be of help to you. As you can see real estate isn’t moving as fast as it was in the past few years but the values in our area are not going down. So I would say to those who are waiting for the “CRASH” they may find themselves paying higher prices in the future.
Please feel free to distribute this information and use me as a source for your clients. I am a Realtor who truly understands the market and I know how to advise both sellers and buyers in this changing market.
Darlene Cherry