Friday, January 1, 2010

Spokane Homes Sales Monthly Report (December 2009)

Checking the pulse of the city of Spokane's real estate market



By Jim Grapes January 1, 2010

The supply of residential homes for sale in Spokane Washington continues to drop as sellers take their homes off the market for the cold winter months or to avoid opening their home during the holidays. In the city of Spokane there were 1968 active listings as of the end of December 2009. One month ago on November 30th there were 2375 active listings so the inventory of available homes has dropped by 407 residential units. Of the current inventory 94 are Lender Owned or REOs (4.8%), and 173 are potential short sales or (8.8%) – about the same percentages as the previous month.

According to the Spokane MLS today, there were 273 home sales in the city of Spokane for December 2009. Another 272 are currently pending under contract for a 13.8% pending rate. At this rate of sales we currently have an inventory of 7.2 months supply of homes on the market. The pending rate went slightly down month-to-month which isn't a huge trend. However, anything over a 6 month supply indicates a buyers market and the trend continues to increase slightly to favor buyers this past month.

The median asking price of homes on the market the end of December was $185,000. These homes currently on the market represent the median home for sale in Spokane: Click Here to View Listings. Of the homes that sold in December the median asking price was $164,900 and they sold for a median sales price of $158,000 or 95.8% of the asking price at the time of sale.

With the home buyers tax credit set to expire in April 2010 and the Fed scheduled to wind down its purchases of mortgage-backed securities by the end of March, the housing market faces a test of its ability to sustain a recovery without as much government aid.

Out of number of homes sold in the city of Spokane in December 2009 my brokerage, Keller Williams Realty Spokane, represented itself quite well representing 38 sellers and 44 buyers for a total 13% by total dollar sales volume in each category. Fifty-one real estate offices had a listing sell in December and fifty-nine represented a buyer