Considering buying or selling your home? Here’s a look at March stats in Pierce County
Home sales in Pierce County in March were a mixed bag, with pending sales of condominiums up year over year in contrast to those pending for existing single-family homes, which were down.
Northwest Multiple Listing Service in its March report said that while interest rates have decreased slightly, “it has yet to have a significant impact on prospective buyers’ purchasing power or prospective sellers’ willingness to give up low interest rate mortgages.”
“For the (26) Washington counties covered by NWMLS, March 2024 saw an 11.2% decrease in the number of closed sales year-over-year, although median sales prices have continued to steadily rise with a year-over-year increase of 7.5%,” the report noted.
In Pierce County, pending sales of homes were down 11.78 percent from a year ago, while closed sales were down just over 23 percent from March 2023.
For condominiums in the county, pending sales were up nearly 21 percent from 2023 and closed sales were down more than 16 percent.
Selma Hepp, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in this month’s NWMLS release that while new listings were picking up, “there seems to be more buyers in the market than the available inventory. As a result, home prices continue to rise despite elevated mortgage rates and constrained affordability.”
The median closed sales price in Pierce County for existing single-family homes was at $550,000, up from $526,000 a year ago. For condos, the median price actually was lower than the same time last year, at $384,000 compared with $399,475 in March 2023.
More condos entered the Pierce County market in March than the same time last year (95 new listings vs. 63) and residential single-family listings were just slightly less than the number entering the market last year.
NWMLS said that the three counties with the highest median sale prices (combined residential and condo) for March were King ($850,000), San Juan ($750,000) and Snohomish ($730,000). The three counties with the lowest median sale prices were Pacific ($347,500), Grant ($325,000) and Columbia ($274,000).
John L. Scott Real Estate, in its monthly recap, showed “severe shortage” in inventory for homes $750,000 and below, with less than a month’s worth of inventory available.
Redfin, meanwhile, showed in the Tacoma market, “On average, homes in Tacoma sell after 20 days on the market compared to 32 days last year.” It showed the median sale price in Tacoma at $460,000, up slightly from a year ago.
In its migration trends report, it noted that “San Francisco homebuyers searched to move into Tacoma more than any other metro followed by New York and Washington (D.C.)”
For those seeking to move out of the area, “Phoenix was the most popular destination among Tacoma homebuyers followed by Bellingham and Portland,” Redfin stated.
For comparison, Zillow showed Tacoma “typical” home value at just over $470,000, with sales pending at around 16 days on average.
Rent rates
In a separate report, Apartment List showed Tacoma rents increased more percentage-wise than nationally in March. Rents in Tacoma increased 0.7% month-to-month, compared with a 0.6% increase nationwide, according to the online listing service.
Year-over-year rent growth in Tacoma now stands at 0.4%, reversing a slight decline seen last year.
It noted the median rent in Tacoma is $1,374 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,716 for a two-bedroom unit. The citywide apartment vacancy rate stands at 6.1%, down 0.2 percentage points from this time last year, according to the service.
Rob Warnock is senior research associate with Apartment List. In an interview in March with The News Tribune, he pointed to higher interest rates as one factor behind a softening of apartment markets nationally, including new construction, similar to the housing market.
“When there’s concerns about inflation, and the state of the economy, there’s a number of things that people do less of — really expensive things like have kids and buy homes — and move.”
“I think this is a period in history right now where people are finding it more economical to stay where they’re at,” he added.
This story was originally published April 5, 2024 at 1:06 PM.
