Real Estate Market Update Vancouver WA March 2016

Moving up the Sales Price Increase in March 2016 for Vancouver WA!

With the resumption of the home shopping season in Vancouver WA, we are seeing an early arrival of the upswing in sales prices. March's highlights include:

• 407 Resale Homes were sold in March 2016, which is 11 (2.8%) more homes than were sold in March 2015.
   
• The 3-Month Moving Average Price Trend Line is moving significantly upwards - now up 11.97% over the prior year at $277,442; and the 12-Month Moving Average is now up 9.27%, at $270,494.
    
• Short Sale /Pre-Foreclosure property sales were at 9 units (2.2% of total); a huge decrease when compared to 21 (5.3% of total) in March of 2015.
  
• REO/Bank Owned home sales were 22 units (4.4% of total); down quite a bit from 43 (7.2% of total) in March of 2015.
   
• The Inventory for Resale Homes for March edged up ever so slightly, and is now at 1.1 Months of Supply!

Vancouver, Clark County and Southwest Washington are facing the challenges of an extreme Seller's Market.  The visible evidence of this include: Increasing Sales Prices; Fewer than Average Days-On-Market; Very Low level of Available Inventory. 

We'll continue this month's analysis with our custom charts.  

Vancouver WA Resale Home Sales - Units Sold Trend March 2016

The first chart (above) shows Unit-Sales for Vancouver. The effects of the low-inventory relative to demand, is showing in the large Short Term decrease in number of homes sold; with signs of perhaps a plateau being hit for the Long Term number (in blue).   

For this Winter's price-performance we have two items of note: First, the typical seasonal decrease looks to be relatively flat to slightly-downwind with an absence of a sharp downward move; and, Second - the resumption of the move upwards has now taken place in March, where previously March was the last month prior to the yearly move upwards.

Vancouver WA Resale Home Sales - Average Sales Price Trend

62 properties (15.23%) closed at $200,000 or less when sold; with 126 (30.95%) sold that were priced $200,000 to $250,000. In comparison with the 2015 measurement, 64.90% of the March 2015 sales were at $250k or below; while this March that reading is now at 45.45%.

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

One of the first facts we see above are the very narrow spread between Listed Units and Pending Units for March - which suggests the low-inventory situation will not be changing as a result of the action this month. 

The Middle chart is showing that the Average List price for the recent new listings is now over $300,000; and also showing quite spread from the recent Closed sales price.  This could portend an acceleration to the price increases for this year.

The Bottom chart is showing March's Median Days on Market looks more like the hot performance turned in last June!

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, or the separate page for Condos for sale in Vancouver WA.  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 setting records for the Vancouver WA real estate market.  Are you planning on Selling or, just want to know what your home is worth -  we offer a no-cost, no-obligation Vancouver WA 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.