Is this the bottom for housing?

Pierce brokers see better times ahead despite price fall

C.R. ROBERTS; c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com
Last updated: November 7th, 2008 12:43 AM (PST)

Maybe.

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service on Thursday issued its monthly recap of home sales and prices in the region.

Again the numbers are down.

For now.

“I think we’re really close to the bottom,” Virgil Wells, associate broker with RE/MAX Partners and president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Association of Realtors, said Thursday.

“I think we’re as close to bottoming out in pricing as I expected,” said Dick Beeson, a broker with Windermere Realty and a director at the Northwest MLS. “It may skid a bit, but I think we’re right there. There is some consternation, yes. But we all feel we’re right about there.”

The data for Pierce County show:

 • New listings of homes and condominiums are down by 518 units in October – from 2,033 a year ago to 1,515.

 • Total active listings are down from 8,439 to 7,244, a decrease of 14.2 percent.

 • In October 2007, agents and brokers closed 844 sales in the county. This October they closed 721.

 • The median price of a home was $266,156 a year ago. Today, the price is $241,000, a decrease of 9.5 percent. (The median price means half of the homes are priced above and half are priced below.)

Also:

 • Pending sales in the 19-county region fell more than 27 percent from a year ago, and are down nearly 26 percent from September.

 • In the region, MLS members reported 4,445 pending sales and 46,189 active listings with a median price of $291,000. The active listings are down 2.52 percent from the year before, and the price is down 7.44 percent.

“The numbers on the face of it are ugly,” Beeson said. “There’s some resignation in some people’s minds that the market is so unstable – the real estate market, stock market, global markets – that uncertainty is something people don’t deal well with. With the election, from this point forward, there will be some hard work done to stabilize the market.”

Beeson said he expects new initiatives beyond infusions of credit to and from banks and a variety of current home buyers’ programs.

“There will be a number of things that come to pass,” he said. “Everything is trending toward a better market, a better-balanced market within the next year. The inventory could be down to 2006 levels, and interest rates will hopefully be the same, and the incentive programs will be activated and used. I do think they will come up with a stabilization act, where they can reduce the interest rate of existing homeowners, where they can afford to keep their homes and guarantee the loans to the banks. That way we could stabilize neighborhoods.”

Buyers will need to stay aware, he said.

“If the inventory continues to slide, buyers will catch wind that they have less to choose from.”

“I think within the next 30 days, I’m going to put money where my mouth is and go out and buy one or two properties,” Wells said. “I think we definitely are going to have a better year next year than we did last year. We should have a good market in the Pacific Northwest.”

For Wells, the way back up looks closer than a continuing trip down.

“Are we at the bottom? I think we’re very close,” he said.

C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535

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Originally published: November 7th, 2008 12:43 AM (PST)