Home sale prices in Pierce County fell again in November compared with the same time last year, continuing a year-over-year decline seen every month of 2011.
Monthly data from the Northwest Multiple Listings Service released Monday showed single family homes and condos had a median sale price of $184,848 last month, an 11 percent decline from the same month a year ago. At the median sale price, half the homes sold for more than that amount and half sold for less.
Distressed properties are to blame for the falling prices, brokers said, because they sell at a discount.
“Home prices continue to get dragged down by foreclosures and short sales, which is disappointing given how strong home sales are,” said OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate, in a news release. “We probably won’t see drastic changes in prices until the banks work through the distressed inventory.”
It’s unclear how long that will take, and how far prices will fall until then. The MLS, which represents 21 counties in Western and Central Washington, classifies distressed properties as those that are bank-owned, and its data showed that almost 38 percent of the single-family homes that sold in Pierce County last month were in that category.
The MLS data doesn’t include short sales, when owners who owe more than their property’s worth work with their lender to sell. In a separate report last week, analytic and business services company CoreLogic reported that about a third of Pierce County’s homeowners are underwater.
Thurston County was a bit brighter, with its median price holding steady at $215,000.
BY THE NUMBERS
Here’s more MLS data, comparing November 2010 and last month:
PIERCE COUNTY
• Median sale prices fell 11 percent from $208,500 to $184,848
• Closed sales rose 21 percent from 625 units to 758 units. Fourteen of those were condos.
• Inventory, the number of units for sale, fell 15 percent from 5,636 units to 4,777 units
• New listings were about flat, from 994 units to 977 units
THURSTON COUNTY
• Median prices stayed the same at $215,000
• Closed sales rose 1 percent from 220 units to 223 units
• Inventory, the number of units for sale, fell almost 10 percent from 1,676 units to 1,513 units
• New listings fell from 287 units to 279 units
KING COUNTY
• Median prices fell almost 15 percent from $340,000 to $290,000
• Closed sales rose 46 percent from 1,331 units to 1,944 units
• Inventory, the number of units for sale, fell almost 26 percent from 11,867 units to 8,790 units
• New listings fell from 2,457 units to 2,236 units
Northwest Multiple Listings Service
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