EVERETT — Snohomish County’s housing market showed signs of a spring thaw as pending single-family home sales rose 28.3 percent in April compared with the previous year.
“Buyers are starting to relax and realize this is a good time to buy,” said Meribeth Hutchings, broker and owner of Windermere Real Estate in Lake Stevens and a director of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
April ushered in a 12 percent drop in closed sales of both single-family homes and condos in Snohomish County, the listing service reported Tuesday. Prices of single-family homes also continued a long decline, dropping 14.3 percent over the previous April. But the number of pending sales, deals begun but not completed, for both single-family homes and condos increased 23.2 percent compared with April 2008.
“One of the most positive signs is that we finally have an increase in pending sales,” Hutchings said.
Several factors may contribute to the increase in pending sales, including lower prices, low mortgage interest rates, improving consumer confidence and the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit on federal income taxes. And in mid-April, the Snohomish County-Camano Association of Realtors held an open house weekend, allowing prospective home buyers the opportunity to browse through hundreds of homes for sale in the county.
Nathan Gorton, executive officer for the association, called the open house weekend a success but doubted the event accounted for the bulk of pending sales.
“Spring is the typical buying season,” Gorton said. “I think the numbers we see mirror the optimism my agents have that we have turned the corner on a bad market.”
Snohomish County had about 1,111 pending sales for houses and condos in April. Nationwide, pending home sales were up 1.1 percent in March, the last month for which the National Association of Realtors has data. In Snohomish County, pending sales dropped 5 percent in March.
The Puget Sound region’s four counties — Snohomish, King, Kitsap and Pierce — logged in 5,372 pending sales in April, the highest total for the area since August 2007.
Industry officials remain cautious about calling April a comeback.
“We need several months of sustained growth to demonstrate a recovery in housing, which is necessary for the overall economy to turn around,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.
Hutchings believes the market in Snohomish County finally is balancing out, with fewer new properties coming on the market. People who are listing their homes are more realistic about the market than in the last several months, she said. The number of listings for houses and condos in the county has shrunk 21.6 percent since last April, with a total of 5,592 properties listed for Snohomish County. Fewer condos or houses came on the market in April, with only 1,579 new listings last month, down from 2,038 in April 2008.
The median sale price for single-family homes dropped 14.3 percent to $299,950, while the median sale price for condos increased just slightly to $233,500 from $230,000 a year ago.
“I just think the feeling out there is the worst is over,” Hutchings said.
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