Snow, cold temperatures and a sluggish economy pushed Pierce County’s median home price down by 13 percent in December, according to figures released Tuesday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. That was the largest year-over-year monthly decline in 2008.

The end-of-the-year snowpacolypse didn’t help the already weakened real estate market as the weather kept buyers and agents from touring homes or even making it to work.

“I wasn’t seeing too many faces during the last half of the month, and a lot of it had to do with the weather and it being too dangerous to drive,” said Dick Beeson, an NWMLS director and broker/owner of Windermere/Commencement Associates in Tacoma.

At $235,000, the median price for a single-family home or condo did perk up a bit from November, when it was $230,000. The median home price in December 2007 was $269,950. (Median means half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.)

Pending sales in the county during December were down almost 14 percent and the number of homes and condos for sale decreased by 11 percent compared to the same month last year.

The latter is good news for home sellers.

“The (high) inventory levels have been one of the problems,” Beeson said. Too many houses for sale makes buyers nervous and tends to drive down prices.

Whether the county has hit the bottom of its price depreciation is anyone’s guess, though Beeson anticipates that the current low interest rates, the new president and a promise of an economic stimulus from Congress will boost consumer confidence – and ultimately the real estate market.

Margo Hass Klein, an associate broker with Coldwell Banker Bain, said the buyers are out there – it’s getting the financing that’s tricky. Now Klein prepares her clients for finding financing before she starts showing them properties.

Still, she is optimistic about 2009.

“I’ve already had four offers this year,” she said. “There’s still going to be a bit of a trickle down, but I’ve had nothing but good signs.”

Kelly Kearsley: 253-597-8573

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