Stronger Seattle, Hawaii, NY Markets Join Slump [Housing Tracker]

Seeking Alpha's Housing Tracker is a collection of housing-related excerpts from various sources, grouped by topic. Feel free to post any interesting links on the subject in the comments section below.

House Sales/Price Data

King County Home Prices Slide Again, But More People Are Buying.  Washington: “Northwest MLS: In September, sellers accepted buyers' offers on 1,767 houses, up nearly 15% from September 2007. It was the first year-over-year increase since February 2007. The number of pending condo sales, in contrast, slid more than 20%. The September median price of a single-family home slid 7.8% from September 2007… An improvement over August, when the median price plunged more than 11%. But September's median house price — $415,000 — still was the lowest since March 2006. The median condo price in September dropped 9.3% from a year earlier, to $272,000… In the Redmond-Carnation area, the number of pending single-family-home sales was up 58% last month.” (Seattle Times, Oct. 7)

Tight Credit, Uncertain Market Make It Tough For Buyers. Virginia: “Real Estate Information Network MLS: In August, 14,894 homes were unsold - nearly four times as many homes as were on the market in August 2005... At the current sales rate, it would take 10 months to work through the backlog of homes for sale… RealtyTrac: Foreclosure-related filings in the Hampton Roads region have more than tripled in the past year… One in every 959 homes was in some stage of foreclosure… The median price for a new home in South Hampton Roads was $325,000 in August, down 4% in the past year and nearly 20% in the past two years, from $404,090.” (Hampton Roads.com, Oct. 7)

Local Housing Market Extends Its Losing Streak. NY: “The median price for homes sold in Dutchess was $297,500, Mid-Hudson Multiple Listing Service reported Monday. That's down 12.5% from a year earlier. The average price of $340,758 was down 20.4% from a year ago. That median is the lowest for any month since December 2004. That average is the lowest since May 2004… Sales volume was 101 single-family free-standing homes, down 29.4% from September 2007. The inventory of unsold homes rose nearly a percent to 2,275, which is above typical long-term levels.” (Poughkeepsie Journal, Oct. 7)

September Home Prices Drop. “Bakersfield, California appraiser Gary Crabtree. The median price for an existing single-family home in the greater metro area was $179,000 last month. That’s a mark passed sometime between May-June 2004… September’s median is a 40% decline from that June 2006 high, a drop of almost $121,000. Last month’s price was also 31.4% lower than September 2007’s, when it stood at $261,000… Sales volume was up year-over-year to 551 homes, more than double the previous September’s volume, though sales pace was down about 11% from August numbers. About 75% of sales were “distressed.” (Bakersfield Californian, Oct. 6)

 Big Island Home Sales Drop, Condo Prices Rise. “Hawaii Information Service: The median price of a single-family home on the Big Island last month was $320,000, a 20% drop from September 2007, when it was $400,000. The year-to-date median price for a single-family home was $350,000, down 15% from the first nine months of 2007, when the median price was $410,000… Sales of single-family homes fell 32% last month, with 83 sales compared to 121 sales during Sept. 2007. Year-to-date sales of single-family homes were off by 33%, with 894 sales recorded during Jan.-Sept. compared to 1,332 sales during the same period in 2007.” (Pacific Business Journal, Oct. 6)

Subprime Mortgage Defaults Rise In Salem. Oregon: “In three years, average home prices in the Mid-Willamette Valley rose by 38%, peaking in 2007 at $249,000, according to the Multiple Listing Service. That was an increase of nearly $70,000 in three years; home prices have declined by $9,000 since last year.” (Statesman Journal, Oct. 5)

Housing Market Feels Effects Of Short Sales. Home Builders Research: In August more than half of the 3,051 sales of existing Las Vegas homes were priced under $200,000. [The] median price of $200,000 [is] a decline of $75,000 compared with August 2007 and a decline of $10,000 compared with July. About 25% of MLS listings are short sales… Of the 8,500 short sale listings, only 3% are under contract… The 3,051 sales of existing homes in August brings the yearly total to 18,720, a decline of 299 transactions or 2% compared with the same period in 2007.” (In Business Las Vegas, Oct. 3)

Manhattan Real Estate: Pricey But Headed For A Fall. “In separate reports released Friday by Brown Harris Stevens, the Corcoran Group, Halstead Property and Prudential Douglas Elliman… the average price of a Manhattan apartment ranged from $1.4M-$1.48 million in Q3’08. That represents an increase of anywhere between 8% and 12% over average apartment prices in Q3’07. Corcoran Group: The rise in Q3 sale prices was skewed by a large number of deals in new luxury buildings, which… only closed recently... Corcoran sold fewer than 3,000 properties last quarter, down 45% from the nearly 5,500 properties the agency sold in Q3’07. Miller Samuel Appraisers: At the same time, the number of properties on the market is increasing. Listing inventory rose 34% during Q3.” (CNN Money, Oct. 3)

High-End Home Market Feeling Pain From Market, Credit Messes.  “North Texas Real Estate Information System and Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center: Million-dollar-plus home purchases are off by about 12% in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through the first eight months of 2008. [Prices are] down almost 25% for homes between $800,000-$1 million… The number of houses on the market in the Park Cities [and north Dallas]… has swollen by almost 40% since last August… Sales have fallen by about 16%. Almost 1,500 million-dollar-plus homes are listed for sale in the Realtors' multiple listing service -- almost a 20-month supply.” (Builder Online, Oct. 3)

                                                                           

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