Home buyers in Pierce County ‘stepped on the gas’ in May
Even with a pandemic and an economy under stress, home sales continued to roll along in Pierce County.
“Buyers in Pierce County stepped on the gas last month after a brief, but significant, tap of the brakes in April,” said Northwest Multiple Listing Service director Mike Larson, president and designated broker at ALLEN Realtors in Lakewood.
Larson’s remarks led the NWMLS monthly report on home sales, with the word “resilient” used often by brokers in Friday’s report to describe the current state of the market.
While new home listings in May were down more than 40 percent in Pierce County compared with last year, pending sales were only down about 16 percent compared with 2019.
Pierce County’s median closed sale price for existing single-family homes in May was $396,550, up more than 7 percent from a year ago, but down from April’s $405,000.
Closed sales were down nearly 28 percent from the same period in 2019.
Homes under $500,000 are still in “extreme shortage” territory, with sales at “extreme frenzy,” according to a separate report from John L. Scott Real Estate.
Pierce County is not alone.
A Redfin analysis published Friday showed that nationwide, “For the full week ended May 31, demand was up 22 percent from pre-pandemic levels in January and February, on a seasonally-adjusted basis. This marks the seventh straight week Redfin’s home-buying demand has increased since it hit bottom in mid-April.”
Another trend Redfin has picked up on: “In April and May, pageviews on Redfin.com for homes in cities with less than 50,000 residents and rural areas are growing five times faster than pageviews for homes in cities and suburbs with more than a million people.”
All of that could add to the demand on the outlying areas in Pierce County, where development already has taken off in some areas. Tehaleh, a Bonney Lake-area development, recently announced hitting a benchmark of 2,000 homes sold since opening in 2012.
In 2015, that same development was home to just 450 families.
Pierce County on Friday moved into Phase 2 of the state’s Safe Start program, coinciding with the real estate market’s move into the summer sales season.
“Anything under $1 million is selling quickly, and most new listings coming to market are going pending in just a few days,” stated Mike Grady, president and COO at Coldwell Banker Bain, in Friday’s release.
Multiple offers are still seen or homes in median price ranges.
“We don’t think we’ll see a balancing of the market in the short term until more sellers decide to list their homes and until new construction accelerates to meet demand,” Grady said.
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
