Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Market Update January 2007

I'm back! After a long hiatus, The Seattle Real Estate Blog is back in action! To start off, let's get up to speed with current market conditions.

Following are a couple of links to sites that I find very useful when researching economic data. I use them when I want to find out what other experts think will happen with our economy and real estate market in the near future.

When reviewing these sites, please keep in mind that real estate markets are primarily local markets, and factors that affect the health of our Seattle market are primarily local. National trends frequently paint a poor picture of what is happening in any one local market.

Of course, interest rates and a few other factors will affect all real estate markets in the country, but the effects will be different in each region. For example, an increase in interest rates would be far more detrimental to a slow real estate market like that in Sarasota, Florida, but would casue far less damage to a market like Seattle that continues to have healthy appreciation rates. (Fortunately, mortgage rates have been going down for the last couple of months. See below.)

Links From UW to Various Financial Reports and Updates

Report from the King County Association of Realtors

As you can see from these reports, the real estate market is expected to continue to be very healthy, though appreciation rates and sales volumes are settling to a more sustainable level. We have a very long ways to go before appreciation rates and interest rates return to historical averages, and the movement is currently very slow. In fact, interest rates for mortgages have been going down a little over the last couple of months. Appreciation rates are still very healthy for homeowners and pre-sale buyers in Seattle, and are still daunting for first-time homebuyers.

1 Comments:

At Thu Mar 22, 08:52:00 AM PDT , Anonymous Anonymous said...

So what is your take on the current Seattle market? I hear so much about foreclosures in the press and found a site that has free foreclosure listings for Seattle. They list 132 properties about to go to auction- do you know if this is high for the area?

http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/seattle/Foreclosures/index.html

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home