Real Estate Marketing Seattle

Summarized from articles in the New York Times and article written by
Martin Crutsinger for AP March 24,2006

Is it good news for Seattle and elsewhere around the country?
For the first time in 9 years the Commerce Department is reporting
Friday that sales of new SFR (single family residences) fell by 10.5
percent seasonally adjusted or annually 1.05 million homes. This
follows a 5.3 percent drop in January. There were a record 548,000 new
homes available for sale by the end of the month. At the current sales
pace, that represents 6.3 months of supply, the largest inventory of
new homes since January 1996, as reported by the Commerce Department.

Another significant statistic is that the national median price of a
home in February fell 1.6 percent to 230,400 from January. This was
the biggest single month drop since April 1997.

What does this really mean?
The unprecedented activity from the last 5 years is starting to slow.=20
It is the markets where the biggest speculation is going on where they
will most likely find the greatest swings in market price and sales as
investors caught riding the wave of the real estate boom attempt to
exit the market.

This very significant change in the market for new homes was not the
same in the market for sales of previous owned homes which actually
rose by 5.2 percent, but it was after 5 months of declines.

The Federal Reserve is watching closely the housing market and is
expected to raise interest rates again next week.

Summarized from articles in the New York Times and article written by
Martin Crutsinger for AP March 24,2006

Is it good news for Seattle and elsewhere around the country?
For the first time in 9 years the Commerce Department is reporting
Friday that sales of new SFR (single family residences) fell by 10.5
percent seasonally adjusted or annually 1.05 million homes. This
follows a 5.3 percent drop in January. There were a record 548,000 new
homes available for sale by the end of the month. At the current sales
pace, that represents 6.3 months of supply, the largest inventory of
new homes since January 1996, as reported by the Commerce Department.

Another significant statistic is that the national median price of a
home in February fell 1.6 percent to 230,400 from January. This was
the biggest single month drop since April 1997.

What does this really mean?
The unprecedented activity from the last 5 years is starting to slow.=20
It is the markets where the biggest speculation is going on where they
will most likely find the greatest swings in market price and sales as
investors caught riding the wave of the real estate boom attempt to
exit the market.

This very significant change in the market for new homes was not the
same in the market for sales of previous owned homes which actually
rose by 5.2 percent, but it was after 5 months of declines.

The Federal Reserve is watching closely the housing market and is
expected to raise interest rates again next week.