Kitsap County Marketing Statistics for June 29, 2009

The number of newly written purchase contracts continues to be a positive indicator of the newly-found interest of buyers.

These are the statistics for the past week:

• Total number of listings for sale in Kitsap County - 1,772
• Total number of listings for sale in Silverdale - 73
• Number of new purchase contracts written in Kitsap County - 65 (seven short sales, five foreclosures)
• Number of closed sales in Kitsap County - 56 (five short sales, ten foreclosures)
• Absorption rate for Kitsap County - 31.6 weeks
• Absorption rate for Silverdale - 24.3 weeks

The absorption rate for the county is remaining relatively stable but the rate for Silverdale is fluctuating between 25 weeks and 80 weeks.

The number of active listings in Kitsap County remains below 2,000 houses.

Buyers continue to make offers on short sale properties but very few of these purchase offers ever close.

Here's the recap for last week:

• Kitsap County active listings back below 1,800 to 1,787
• Silverdale active listings down to 78
• New contracts written county-wide was 66 (strong week)
• Kitsap County closed sales was 51 (about average)
• Kitsap County absorption rate was 35.1 weeks of inventory for sale
• Silverdale absorption rate was 78 weeks of inventory for sale

Of the 66 new purchase contracts written last week, 11 were foreclosed properties and only one was for a short sale. Of the closed sales last week, 12 were foreclosed properties and three were short sales.

The percentages of short sales and foreclosures to total contracts written and closed sales stayed within the 18% to 25% range.

Potential Buyer Incentive Program Changes in the Works???

(I believe) the American Recovery and Revitalization Act (H.R. 1) established the $8000.00 first-time buyer tax credit. What you may not know is the US Senate version was for $15,000.00 originally but didn't clear the House/Senate conference.

Well...some of our elected representatives, as well as some powerful lobbying groups, aren't satisfied with the slow recovery of the real estate markets. So, there have been some discussions about increasing the credit amount to $15,000.00, making the credit available to any home buyer and extending the program (to qualify the home must fund and recond on or before November 30, 2009).

Stay tuned!

Kitsap County Market Statistics for June 15, 2009

The notable change in this past week's market statistics was that the number of short sales and foreclosures for both new offers and closed sales decreased from past week's averages.

The current statistics for the past week are:

• Active listings for Kitsap County is 1,801 (a slight increase)
• Silverdale active listings is 81
• Number of newly written purchase contracts is 51 (two short sales and six foreclosures)
• Number of closed sales is 36 (five short sales and three foreclosures)
• Kitsap County absorption rate is 50.1 weeks
• Silverdale absorption rate is 40.5 weeks

As I mentioned, the total number of short sales and foreclosures was about 30% less than in past weeks.

Kitsap County Market Statistics for June 8, 2009

If you look at the trend line on this week's chart it's obvious the trend is now heading downwards when measuring absorption rate. This would indicate that we may be coming out of our buyer's market and heading towards a neutral market.

But, numbers can be confusing and the number of new contracts written each week has been declining over the past three weeks. Anyway here are the numbers for last week:

• There were 1,784 active listings for sale county-wide
• There were 86 active listings for sale in Silverdale
• There were 47 new purchase contracts written during the week (of those four were short sales and nine were foreclosures)
• There were 50 closed sales for the week (four short sales and two foreclosures)
• The absorption rate for Silverdale was 21.5 week of homes for sale
• The absorption rate for Kitsap County was 37.5 weeks of homes for sale

Remember what Benjamin Disraeli said, "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." My advice is to check the numbers and look for the trend.

Weekly Kitsap Marketing Statistics for June 1, 2009

The past two weeks the trend of new purchase offers written and accepted has decreased to 43 and then 39. The average over the previous six weeks was 54. Not a good trend! And as the number of accepted offers decreases, so will the number of closed sales (six week delay).

Here is the Kitsap recap for the week:

• 39 new purchase offers accepted by sellers (10 foreclosures and one short sale)
• 43 closed transactions (five foreclosures and one short sale)
• 1,770 active listings for sale county-wide
• 85 active listings for sale in Silverdale
• Absorption rate for Silverdale was 14.2 weeks (not bad)
• Absorption rate for Kitsap County was 41.2 weeks

Since I started "breaking out" the foreclosures and short sales the past two weeks it's evident that many buyers are avoiding short sales and focusing on foreclosures.

That's what I expected. Now I have proof.

Weekly Kitsap County Marketing Statistics for May 25, 2009

The number of newly written contracts was 43 and back to where we were from January through March.

I'm also identifying the actual number of short sales and foreclosures from now on.

So here are the stats:

• 1,776 active listings in the county
• 89 active listings in Silverdale
• 43 new contracts written (one short sales and nine foreclosures)
• 40 sales in the county (one short sale and 12 foreclosures)
• Kitsap County absorption rate is 40.4 weeks of inventory for sale
• Silverdale absorption rate is 86 weeks of inventory

Total short sales and foreclosures is still around 25% of transactions.