The median price of Snohomish County homes sold in April dropped nearly $50,000 from the same month in 2010, as repossessed properties continue to flood the market.
The combined median price for single-family homes and condominiums dropped 17.6 percent last month to $225,000, the Northwest Mu
ltiple Listing Service reported Thursday.
The median price of a single-family home was $232,546. Median means half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
That’s the lowest price since January 2004, or more than seven years, according to listing service statistics.
About 24 percent of the homes sold in Washington state are short sales or foreclosures, according to the National Association of Realtors. The numbers are higher in Snohomish County, where home building and land development were peaking when the housing market crashed.
Banks continue to work through their home inventory, and the number of homes for sale have fallen with the prices. There were 4,617 homes listed in the county in April, nearly a 14 percent drop from a year ago.
Many people who don’t have to sell have pulled their homes from the market because of the falling prices.
Joe Spencer of John L. Scott Real Estate said that reduced inventory is creating a better balance of supply and demand. He said it should help to stabilize prices.
OB Jacobi, a listing service director and president of Windermere Real Estate, said about 35 percent of King County’s sales in April came from distressed properties, up from 21 percent a year ago, according to his company’s research.
“The good news is that while there is significant bank-owned inventory, it looks like the banks are starting to work their way through it,” he said.
In addition to prices, home sales also took a double-digit drop last month. There were 734 homes sold in the county in April, 15.5 percent fewer than were sold here a year ago.
The strong drop in sales is not unusual since many people rushed to buy a year ago to meet the deadline for a federal home buyers tax break.
April home sales
Snohomish County
Listings: 4,617, down 13.8 percent
Pending sales: 1,233, down 19.4 percent
Closed sales: 734, down 15.5 percent
Median price: $225,000, down 17.6 percent
Island County
Listings: 926, down 16.4 percent
Pending sales: 104, down 20.6 percent
Closed sales: 77, down 21.4 percent
Median price: $232,000, down 8.7 percent
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