Condo numbers cut sale prices

EVERETT — The combined median home price in Snoho­mish County dropped last month for the first time in years, mostly due to a big boost in condominiums on the market.

The median price, $335,000 for both single-family homes and condos, dropped 0.88 percent from the year-ago median of $337,970, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Thursday.

The drop, however, was a little misleading because viewed separately, prices for both condos and single-family homes rose last month. The median for houses was $360,000, a 0.7 percent increase from November 2006. The median just for condos was $238,000, a nearly 14 percent hike from a year ago.

But there were nearly 1,000 condos on the market in November, twice the number of last year. The lower prices for condos and this year’s higher numbers pushed the combined median into negative territory.

Otherwise, home sales were as expected for what is typically the slowest period of the year in real estate.

Combined numbers showed that inventory rose by 50 percent, sales not completed by the end of the month dropped by nearly 30 percent and completed sales dropped by nearly 27 percent.

Real estate agents have been saying for months that sales here have been strongly affected by national news stories about the mortgage crisis and about the drops in value of homes in many parts of the country.

J. Lennox Scott, CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, said problems elsewhere are continuing to affect the local market, but not as much.

“We’re slowly beginning to rebound from the effects of the turbulent mortgage market,” Scott said. “Interest rates are back down to pre-mortgage meltdown levels, prices are holding steady and these is ample inventory for buyers.”

Dick Beeson, a broker and director of the listing service, agreed.

“The market seems to have leveled out,” he said.

He noted there are still a number of noncommitted buyers in prolonged searches for bargains, but he added he expects a rebound for sales in the spring.