Good news for home buyers: More inventory and lower prices

Pierce County’s home sales market is cooling enough to notice.

While some areas saw sharper price declines than others, (yes, we’re looking at you again, Graham), some areas, such as Gig Harbor, continued their upward trajectories.

That’s the overall snapshot from Northwest Multiple Listing Service’s August home sales report.

The median closed home sales price in Pierce County slipped from July’s $353,500 to August’s $352,000. That’s still up more than 12 percent from a year ago.

Median closed condo price in the county rose from July’s $246,475 to August’s $256,000, up nearly 14 percent from a year ago.

Pending home sales were down more than 13 percent from this time in 2017, while pending condo sales were up more than 9 percent from this time last year.

King County’s pending home sales were down nearly 21 percent from a year ago, with the median closed home sale price at $669,000 and median condo closed sale price at $415,000.

Pierce County’s home inventory is at 1.73 months, up from July’s 1.52. King County is almost at two months’ worth for homes (key word is almost) at 1.96.

With growing inventories “buyers are definitely taking more time to make a purchase,” Mike Grady, president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Bain, said in the NWMLS news release. “This creates a declining curve in pending transactions compared to last year.”

Still, real estate experts speaking through NWMLS were not ready to declare we’ve swung into a total buyer’s market.

“There have been incremental increases in listing inventory the past few months,” noted Gary O’Leyar, the designated broker/owner at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Signature Properties. But, he added, “By no means have inventory levels reached a point that is deemed to be a balanced market.”

While Pierce and King counties showed similar trends, Thurston County was an outlier in the August report. It nearly matched its 2017 levels for pending and closed sales. The median closed sale price fell from July’s $320,000 to August’s $318,100.

Some sellers trying to get the highest price for their homes early on might have been too ambitious, and now either are seeing their homes linger on market longer than anticipated or are finding their timing was off as competing sellers crop up in their neighborhoods.

“I guess we should have schooled them a bit about a phasing-in process and not to bunch up at the listing house door,” Dick Beeson, principal managing broker of RE/MAX professionals, Gig Harbor, said in the release.

Homes are still selling in days or a few weeks, Beeson said, adding, “Only now there are just three to five offers, not 50.”

And, given last month’s news that prices were pushing people to places such as Graham, Greenwater, Clear Lake and Eatonville to find bargains, how did those outlying areas do in August? The median closed home sale price went from July’s $360,900 to August’s $316,350.

Here are the median closed home sale prices in August in Pierce County, followed by July’s numbers:

▪ Gig Harbor/Key Peninsula: $500,000 ($491,000)

▪ North Tacoma: $431,400 ($462,450)

▪ University Place/Fircrest: $396,000 ($435,000)

▪ Puyallup: $358,700 ($360,000)

▪ Lakewood: $313,000 ($327,475)

▪ Central Tacoma: $306,000 ($303,500)

▪ South Tacoma: $272,000 ($258,000)

This story was originally published September 7, 2018 at 4:35 PM.