Real Estate Market Update Vancouver WA February 2016

Pre-Owned Home Sales Challenged by Low Inventory in February 2016 for Vancouver WA !

While February 2016 saw the Vancouver market turn in a strong tally for closed Units-Sold, February is starting to see the strain caused by the incredibly low-level of available homes on the market.  February's highlights include:

• 254 Resale Homes were sold in February 2016, which is 14 (-5.2%) fewer homes than were sold in February 2015.
   
• The 3-Month Moving Average Price Trend Line is moving essentially sideways - now up 9.26% over the prior year at $270,081; and the 12-Month Moving Average is now up 8.79%, at $267,695.
    
• Short Sale /Pre-Foreclosure property sales were only 8 units (3.1% of total); quite a decrease when compared to 11 (4.1% of total) in February of 2015.
  
  
• REO/Bank Owned home sales were 16 units (6.3% of total); substantially down from 31 (11.6% of total) in February of 2015.
   
• Available Inventory for Resale Homes at the end of February has essentially held steady, and now at 1.0 Months of Supply!

With such a tremendous surge of home sales in 2015, it is perhaps little surprise that at some point we'd start seeing down or erratic behavior in the unit-sales once we work through the inventory of homes where the sellers had previously delayed their sales plans. With only One Month of available inventory, combined with quite low levels of bank owned home sales and short sales; we think we've hit the point where prices can continue their upward trend even when unit sales don't break new records. 

The Vancouver WA real estate market has changed considerably since 2009, as the following charts show.  

Vancouver WA Resale Home Sales - Units Sold Trend February 2016

The Unit-Sales chart (above) is clearly showing that the greatly reduced sales in February has been strong enough to cause the long-term average line (in blue) to sideways or slightly downwards - which is quite a change over its steady rise the past two-years.   

Unlike the typical seasonal dip in average sales prices, this year the "dip" has been extremely small - and looks more like sideways action, as seen below.

Vancouver WA Resale Home Sales - Average Sales Price Trend

47 properties (18.51%) closed at $200,000 or less when sold; with 97 (38.2%) sold that were priced $200,000 to $250,000. In comparison with the 2014 measurement, 72.4% of the February 2015 sales were at $250k or below; while this February that reading is now at 56.7%.  

The final three charts (below) from the Regional Multiple Listing Service show the most recent 12 months real estate market action for Unit Sales, Average & Median Prices; and Days on Market:

Vancouver Resale Home Sales Inventory & Days on Market Trends

The Average List price has taken a significant jump higher this month.  Will we see much higher closed sales-prices a result?

Thank you for viewing our report, and please contact us with any questions, or requests for assistance. 

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PS - You are welcome to visit our Homes For Sale in Vancouver WA page.  We've tried hard to make it Easy for You to search by Neighborhood or by Category, with Homes  and real estate listings from the entire RMLS.  Sign-up Not Required!

Some of the Popular Searches include:  Cascade Park Homes; The Heights Homes; Felida Homes; Fishers Landing Homes; Hazel Dell / Lakeshore Homes; Minnehaha / Walnut Grove Homes; and Salmon Creek Homes.

A few of the Category searches include: Acreage Homes Vancouver WA; Vancouver WA Real Estate Listing Agents; One-Level Ranch Homes for sale in Vancouver WA.

PPS -2016 is in record-setting territory for the Vancouver Washington real estate market.  If you are thinking of Selling or, just want to know what your home is worth -  we offer a no-cost, no-obligation Vancouver Washington Home Valuation Report, and invite you to try it out!

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This report and custom charts (prepared by John Slocum Realtor®, our resident statistician) are based on home sales posted 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 Vancouver WA's 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.

Vancouver WA Condo Market Report February 2016

Vancouver WA Condo Market Inventory Running LOW in February 2016!

 With the very small number of condos and attached-style homes available to view by condo shoppers, Vancouver's condo market is very challenging at this time. Here are the highlights for January 2016:

• Condo Average Sales Prices are in record setting territory, with the 3-Month Moving Average now at $206,785 closing up 16.09% over the prior January; and the 12-Month Moving Average closed up 6.54% from the prior year;
     
• 34 Resale Condos were sold in February, which is about 5 (12.8%) fewer condos than in February 2015;
   
• REO/Bank Owned Condo sales were 0 units (0% of total); down from 4 (10.3% of total) in February 2015.
   
• Short Sale /Pre-Foreclosure property sales were 0 unit (0.0% of total); compared to 2 (5.1% of total) in February 2015.

A "First" for this report is this month's zero-count for both Bank-owned and Short Sale closings (although there are several short-sale pending listings, and a few pending bank-owned condos).  

The Custom Condo Charts we've prepared and shown below will help with the remainder of our report. 

Vancouver WA Resale Condo Sales - Units Sold Trend February 2016

We should typically see February starting to show more closed units than the low in January however, with so many resale condos purchased last year, it should be no surprise that there will be fewer closed sales when there are fewer condos to purchase.

Average Condo Sales-Price levels are now in record setting territory (see below), starting the new year at a much higher position than expected..

Vancouver WA Resale Condo Sales - Average Sales Price Trend

RMLS charts below illustrate the recent twelve (12) months of condo market results - through February 2016, for Unit Sales, Average & Median Prices; and Days on Market:

Vancouver Condo Sales Inventory & Days on Market Trends

From the above charts we see that the average list price for new listings is dramatically above both previous levels and above the closed-sales-price levels.  We also see that the most-recent Median Days on Market is at 8 Days - the lowest level seen in years!

Thanks for viewing our report on the Vancouver WA Condo Market.  Please contact us with any questions or comments; and to let us know how we can be of assistance!

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PS - Please visit the Condos For Sale in Vancouver WA page at our website, where we have made it Easy to search by Neighborhood for Condos, with listings for condos from the entire RMLS.  You do not have to Sign-up to view Condominiums and Townhomes!

PPS - Don't wait any longer with your Condo Selling or Buying Plans - Call Us Soon!

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The statistical charts for Vancouver WA Condos in this report (prepared by Vancouver WA Condo Realtor® John Slocum, our resident statistician) are based on condo sales recorded in the Vancouver MLS system (RMLS), excluding sales of newly constructed condos; and shows the purchase activity since 2009; charting the 3 month Moving average number of sales, and the 12 month Moving average.  The "smoothing" of the relatively sparse-data helps to better illustrate the short-term and longer term trends in Vancouver's Condominium market.

Disclaimer: as with all 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.