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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, August 7, 2007 County housing boom finally fades By Mike Benbow, Herald Writer If you can trust the numbers, Snohomish County's red hot real estate market of the past six or seven years is officially over for now. Consider these digits released Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service for July sales: 57. The percentage rise in the number of homes available on the market during the past year. 17. The percentage that home sales have dropped in Snohomish County between now and a year ago. 4. The percentage increase in home prices since July 2006. "It's transitional," said Vern Holden, a Windermere broker in Mill Creek. Holden described the old market in the county as a "pure sellers market" where buyers had to act fast, had few choices, found getting a mortgage to be easy and were pretty much stuck with rising prices. Things are clearly different now, he added. "It's moving to a more balanced market, maybe even a buyers market in the near future, he said. "Before, we had to educate buyers to be ready with their financing and to consider waiving the inspections if they really wanted a house," he said. "A lot of buyers were being pushed out of the market. Today, buyers are looking more because choices are greater and they're making more demands on sellers." Holden said he's pleased that prices aren't vaulting in double digits as they have for the past few years. "You can't continue to see the hyper-appreciation we've had every year, sometimes 20 percent," he said. "You can't sustain that. I'm happy to see this period. Prices for land (to builders) will become more realistic. The prices to buyers will be more realistic." The July numbers showed that buyers certainly are concerned about price, with many shifting their interest from single-family homes to less expensive condominiums. Sales of detached houses, which had a median price of $370,165 last month, dropped 21.6 percent in July. Sales of condos, with a median of $255,000, actually rose, climbing 7 percent from a year ago. Condo prices have risen 18.6 percent during the past year, while single-family homes have only risen the above-mentioned 4 percent. Holden said he's seeing more condo construction than ever before in Snohomish County and throughout the region, partly because of state rules requiring more density in urban areas and partly because buyers need more lower cost housing. "It's a way for people to get into something where they can enjoy the tax breaks," Holden said. "Sellers will have to become more realistic about what single-family homes are worth because buyers are willing to wait them out." Holden said things really are shifting to buyers as inventories climb, prices rise more slowly and loan rates remain affordable. While Holden said he believes the housing market is becoming more balanced, he said that he's concerned about the default of many subprime mortgage companies these days. "My only fear is that mortgage brokers will overreact," he said. "I'd hate to see them requiring really high credit scores and 25 percent down."

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