Here’s what homes in Pierce County are going for now as compared to other counties
Pierce County’s cooler housing market brought down the county’s median sale price from July, as both pending and closed sales showed year-over-year declines for a third straight month, according to new data.
Northwest Multiple Listing Service’s latest report showed Pierce County’s median closed sale price for August was $555,000, down from $575,000 in July but still up nearly 8 percent from the same time last year.
Listings were up more than 100 percent compared with last year, but pending sales were down more than 21 percent from 2021 and closed sales down more than 25 percent from a year ago.
Pierce County wasn’t alone. Pending and closed sales year over year were down pretty much across the region.
“Last month’s housing numbers certainly are eye-opening,” stated Windermere chief economist Matthew Gardner in the NWMLS release. “However, I believe they are simply indicating the market is trending back to the more normalized conditions that we were seeing before the pandemic.”
In a separate report, Redfin on Thursday noted that 30-year mortgage rates are now up to 5.89 percent, “their highest level since November 2008.” Nationally, it reported, “The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, fell to 99.7 percent from 101.2 percent a year earlier.”
According to NWMLS, sellers in Pierce, Thurston and Douglas counties were able to get “slightly” more than the asking price from buyers, while the area sale-to-list price ratio was at 99.3 percent.
Gardner noted, “Even though inventory in the King, Pierce and Snohomish counties region almost doubled from a year ago, the number of homes for sale is still 14 percent lower than in August of 2019.”
J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, noted in the NWMLS release that he expects only two more months to have more homes coming on the market.
“Once winter hits, new resale listings will become scarcer until activity ticks up to a higher level in March 2023,” he stated.
A separate report from the real estate firm showed there is a “severe” shortage in Pierce County for homes $500,000 and below, with those up to $350,000 still selling the fastest with more than 70 percent pending in the first 30 days of July listings.
In contrast just 32 percent of homes between $1 million and 1.5 million went pending in that same time frame, according to the report.
Here’s how Pierce County’s median closed home sale price compared with other counties in the area, with the percentage increase from same month last year:
▪ King County: $899,999, up 5.88 percent.
▪ Snohomish County: $749,999, up 7.93 percent.
▪ Kitsap County: $550,000, up 9.18 percent.
▪ Thurston County: $493,514, up 6.13 percent.
▪ Mason County: $435,000, up 9.16 percent.
As for the condo market, Pierce County’s median closed sale price was $395,000, up 16.18 percent from a year ago. Listings were up more than 70 percent, but pending and closed sales were both slightly down from 2021. Here’s how Pierce County compares with others and how those prices compare with last year:
▪ King County: $485,000, up 5.90 percent.
▪ Snohomish County: $474,999, down 4.98 percent.
▪ Kitsap County: $317,500, down 9.29 percent.
▪ Thurston County: $346,500, up 10.88 percent
▪ Mason County: $627,500, up 29.12 percent (Note: Mason County recorded just two condo sales in 2022 and one in 2021).
Gardner noted rising inventory was helping to bring down prices in the area month over month.
“I predict prices will drop further as we move into the fall, but reports that we are entering a “bear market’ are highly exaggerated,” he said in the release. “The market is simply reverting to its long-term average as it moves away from the artificial conditions caused by the pandemic.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
