Kitsap Real Estate Local Markets in March 2011
By Admin
The past week has produced, among other things, the worst natural disaster many of us have seen in our lifetimes. The Japanese earthquake was one of the strongest ever recorded, and the 33 foot tsunami has done untold damage to coastal communities in Japan and elsewhere. Admittedly the loss of life and human displacement in other recent natural disasters has been worse, for instance the flooding in Pakistan or the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami of 2004. The Haitian earthquake of 2010, 100 times lower in magnitude than this one, killed perhaps 200,000 and left more than 1.5 million people homeless. However, this event was much more powerful and has seriously disrupted life in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. In that sense perhaps it hits closer to home–none of us are immune.
Much of the media’s attention has been focused on the problems at the Fukushima Nuclear Plants. Please check this link from MIT’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Department for a good layman’s explanation of the problems they have encountered and current status. In many cases the media have created unnecessary hysteria in their reports, though the problems at these plants are indeed serious and the eventual recovery appears will be very costly. Problems at these plants have thus far been on the order of the 3 Mile Island accident, which, though it severely affected the political climate for nuclear power in the US, is generally agreed to have had little measurable effect on public health. If you want to contribute to provide shelter and essential life needs for the survivors, we suggest a donation to Shelterbox, a UK based non profit that delivers boxes with a survival kit for 10 people, including shelter, warmth and protection, the ability to cook and boil water, as well as tools for survival. Boxes cost $1000 each, but donations as small as $10 are gratefully accepted. Almost 30,000 Shelterboxes were delivered after the earthquake in Haiti - shelter for nearly 300,000 people. 200 boxes have already been delivered in Japan, and another 5000 have been staged so far. A recent report identified that some 215,000 people are homeless in Japan as a result of the disaster.
Compared to the problems people are facing in Japan, it’s hard for us to assign much gravity to problems with our nation’s housing or those of our local real estate markets. Still these issues must be resolved to improve the lives of many in America. Read More
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By hdnelson
Our March Kitsap real estate market report has been posted. A quick look at the graphs for this month’s market trends shows that home sales are actually climbing, both pending sales and closed sales, that the inventory is turning over more quickly (this is a good thing), that the inventory of listings is lower than at any time since 2007, that the number of closed sales is the 2nd lowest since 2007 (2009 was worse), and that the median closed sales price is nearly $20,000 lower than any other time since 2007. This stark drop in the 3 month moving average of median prices reflects January’s abnormally low median price. Median price actually bounced up nearly 30% in February. See more at http://www.prowserealestate.com/Newsletter
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By hdnelson
Prowse and Company’s February Waterfront Update is out - see the graphs and download the latest newsletter and stats, as well as our current waterfront listings. Closed waterfront sales fell 30% in January compared to December and were down 36% compared to a year ago. Pending sales are way up - up 56% from December - so we don’t expect this trend in closed sales to continue. January’s listing inventory lags last year by 10% and but rose 17% compared to December. January’s inventory turnover rate was about 20 months. This is still definitely a buyer’s market. If you are looking for a smaller waterfront home with lots of privacy, a great south-facing water and mountain view, and easy beach access, I have a brand new listing at 17160 Angeline Ave South NE, Suquamish priced at only $515,000! This home is very private - gated and fully fenced. It has bulkheaded beach access, a mooring buoy, and davit. More at http://bprowse.com/kitsap_waterfront
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By hdnelson
Each month we try to compare some reports about the national real estate market to what we see in our local markets. While nationally the blog Calculated Risk reported that short sales increased significantly in the 4th quarter, we only saw 27% (a very modest rise if any) of last year’s short sales close in Q4. There was also a report from Marc Hanson that the percentage of REO (bank owned) sales In December fell in California as an overall percentage of sales in that market. In our market the number of closed sales that were bank owned rose from 38 in November to 43 in December (up 12%). Our market agrees with the article that $200-300k is the new normal for homebuilders. The article shows that the percentage of sales in the west under $300k was 42% in 2007, but is now 65%. In Kitsap County, the percentage of sales under $300k was 54% (1945 of 3615 total sales) in 2007 and in 2011 was 72% (1829 of 2538 total sales). More at http://tinyurl.com/7pljyjx
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