Annual 2013 Real Estate Market Recap for Camas WA

Resale Homes see "Choppy" Price Action in the Camas WA Real Estate Market, with Fewer Distressed Properties and Increase in Units Sold.

The Camas real estate market appeared to be a year of reasonable improvement in 2013, with these highlights:

• Mixed Prices Indexes ("Choppy"), Rising early but, by the end of the year the 3-Month Moving Average was Down -8.0%; while the 12-Month Moving Average was a positive 8.31%
   
• End of the Year Prices Trended Steeply Downward for the 3-Month Moving Average, and were Flat-to-Dowward for the 12-Month Moving Average
   
• End of Year Absorption Rate was 95 Days (compared to 108 Days for Vancouver) - Still very much in the range of a Strong "Seller's Market."
   
• 464 Resale Homes (approx) closed in 2013, which is about 66 (16.6%) more units closed than in 2012.
   
• Bank Owned / REO property sales were 39 units (8.4% of total); down from 44 (11.1%) in 2012.  This tracks with the decrease in Bank Owned homes for sale in Clark County.
   
• /Pre-Foreclosure / Short Sale property sales were 49 units (10.6% of total); down from 77 (19.34%) in 2012.
  

We reported in last month's Real Estate Update for Clark County the Autumn season is usually slower, combined with the uncertainty the shut-down of the US government caused, Clark County real estate to see the first significant and sustained break in rising prices in this phase of the economic recovery.

Now for the Camas Charts! - The first one represents the number of Camas Resale Homes Sold (Excludes New Construction), with a short term trend line (in Red) calculated as a 3-Month Moving Average; and the longer term trend line (Blue line) equaling the 12-month Moving Average.

Camas Resale Home Sales - Units Sold Trend 2013

This chart is clearly showing we are in the typical seasonal down-turn - shown by the 3-month (Red) Moving Average line; with the strongest season in the Summer. The longer-term 12-month Moving Average (Blue) line has remained in a somewhat narrow range for the past few years.

For Home Prices, this next chart shows quite "choppy" action with the 3-month/short-term trend line, to where it had risen high above the 12-Month line to then drop steeply, where in November it pierced the 12-month/long-term price trend line and continued falling!  The long-term trend line also shows a "leveling-to-downward" direction at the end of the year.

Camas Resale Home Sales - Average Sales Price Trend 2013

While the 3-Month Moving Average line is "choppy" (owing to the quite small market size of Camas), the Long Term trend (blue line) has shown a strong improvement over most of the year.  Thus, given reasonable stable-to-improving broader economic factors (jobs, un-employment, in-migration), we expect prices to continue a longer upward trend.

Camas Resale Home Sales Inventory & Days on Market - 2013

Finally our last set of 3 charts shows the dynamics of the market throughout the year.  The top chart shows a surge of new listings in the Spring, followed by a surge of closed sales from May through August; which ties in with the Days on Market shrinking in the late Spring through early Fall as shown by the 3rd chart.  If 2014 performs in similar fashion, then the first quarter of the year is the time for Sellers to get their homes ready to sell; and for Buyers the best bargains in Camas are right now!

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PS - Visit our website for the Camas Real Estate and Home Search page, where we have 16 neighborhood searches already set up in addition to 7 category searches, with real estate listings from the entire RMLS.

PPS - the buzz with our team and at the RE/MAX office is that 2014 is starting out Very Strongly.  Don't delay with your Home Selling or Buying Plans - Call Us Soon!

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This Repart and Charts (prepared by Realtor® John Slocum, our resident statistician) are based on home sales recorded in the Vancouver MLS system (RMLS), excluding sales of mobile home; and shows the purchase activity since 2009; charting the 3 month Moving average number of sales, and the 12 month Moving average.  This "smoothing" of the trend-data helps illustrate the short-term and longer term trends in the Camas real estate market.

Disclaimer: as with any real estate statistics, we do our best to provide the best representation at the time the data was acquired.  We deem the data and reports reliable but not guaranteed.