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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   June home sales Combined data for single-family homes and condominiums Snohomish County Listings: 6,194, up 60.63 percent. Pending sales: 1,443, down 18.10 percent. Closed sales: 1,418, down 11.87 percent. Median price: $355,000, up 8.03 percent. Island County Listings: 1,112, up 22.87 percent. Pending sales: 141, down 10.19 percent. Closed sales: 126, down 17 percent. Median price: $308,850, up 3.64 percent. Source: Northwest Multiple Listing Service   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, July 6, 2007 Condo prices shoot up 20 percent from last year By Mike Benbow, Herald Writer Not long ago, homebuyers didn't want much to do with condominiums. They wanted a single-family house and a big yard. Builders didn't want to build them, either, as a wave of lawsuits alleging shoddy construction pushed contractor insurance through the roof. But today - a time where the market for single-family homes has cooled significantly from the days of multiple, full-price offers - the condo is king in Snohomish County. Consider these statistics released Thursday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service: * The median price for condos hit $253,500 in June, an all-time high. Median means half the prices were higher and half were lower. * That record median was nearly 20 percent higher than the $211,900 price of a year ago. * Listings have skyrocketed with the popularity of condos. There were 812 condos on the market last month, a 117.7 percent increase over June of 2006. * Pending sales of condos are up 8 percent from a year ago. Closed sales have also risen by the same amount, with 282 condos sold in June compared with 261 a year ago. By comparison, single-family home sales in June dropped by nearly 16 percent. Pending sales dropped by 23 percent, showing the July sales will likely fall also. The median price for single-family homes only was $381,719, a 9 percent increase from a year ago. That compares with what had been double-digit rises last year. Inventories for homes are also way up, by 55 percent. Builders are clearly focusing on condos, though. Experts say the difference is price and a cutback in the availability of loans. "Psychological factors are currently the biggest drag on the housing market, in addition to a disruption from tighter credit for subprime loans," Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said in a news release. Talking about the national real estate market, Yun said the housing market is underperforming based on job creation, economic growth, mortgage rates and flatter prices. "It appears that buyers are simply waiting for more signs of stability," he added. As home prices continue to climb, more and more people are either pushed out of the market or forced to consider condos, especially as a first-time home. While condo prices are rising faster than those of single-family homes, they're still $130,000 cheaper. Snohomish County condos look like a better deal than their King County counterparts. In King County, the median price is $280,250, $26,750 more than in Snohomish County. The gap between single-family homes is even higher. In King County, the median is $470,000, $88,281 more than in Snohomish County.

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