Real Estate Market Report Clark County WA - March 2020

Crashing Unit-Home Sales With a Lingering Price Rise for Clark County WA in March 2020.

We are starting to see the Pandemic/Government effects on the shutting-down / slowing-down of the economy in the statistics for the local real estate market. Both Pending and Closed sales are down; with Available Inventory moving upwards.  Here are the highlights for this month's report: 

• Average-Sales Price still has upwards inertia and climbed to $418,115 - another all-time high, with the 12-month/long-term trend line up 3.81% year-over-year;  and the 3-Month Moving Average up 8.11% from this time last year; 
   
• The Inventory for Resale Real Estate moved upwards 0.4 month's-worth, to a still 1.2 Month level of Supply;
   
• Approximately 433 Resale Properties were sold/closed, which is about 68 fewer (-13.57%) homes than in 2019; and 46 more than last month;
   
• REO/Bank Owned property sales were 3 units (0.7% of total); down from 4 (0.8%) in 2019; 
   
• Short Sale /Pre-Foreclosure property sales were 2 unit (0.46% of total); no change from 2 (0.4%) in 2019.

The Home Mortgage 30-year-fixed loan interest rate (nationwide average) at month-end, went slightly lower to 3.45% (Down from 3.47% last month) according to Freddie Mac; compared to 4.27% for March 2019. With the massive federal response to the Pandemic, we don't expect the loan interest rate to rise.

Next up is my custom chart for Unit-Volume (number of properties sold) showing short term (in Red) and long term (12-month moving average in Blue) trends: 

Clark County Home Sales - Units Sold Trend March 2020

The Short Term trend last year hit the low-point in February. This month is the lowest-point for our current year; and it is possible this won't bottom-out just yet. The long-term trend also shows some downward direction when it had been going side-ways.   

The chart for Average Home Sales Price is shown next, illustrating the current and past Home-Sales-Price results for both short-term and long-term: 

Clark County Home Sales - Average Sales Price Trend March 2020

The long duration of extremely low level of Active Inventory kept strong upward pressure on Prices; and we are likely seeing inertia in the price-direction for this reporting month.  With the combination of the Pandemic and Financial markets in distress, it is very likely we'll see much softening in sales prices very soon.
 
The Average Sales Price (using 3 months) for Clark County is now $418,115; which is an increase of approximately $31,355 from this time last year.

The remaining set of graphs come from RMLS and show:

Clark County Home Sales Inventory
& Days on Market - March 2020

New Listings jumped up like we typically have seen in the past; while Pending Sales and Closed Sales both broke-rank and lagged far behind. If this divergence continues we expect the level of Active Inventory to increase rapidly and substantially. 

The second graph shows both the Closed Sales and Average Sales pricing coming in at their highest level ever, which is perhaps not surprising at the Peak of any market run-up.

Finally, Average Days on Market and Median Days on the Market have both fallen like we typically see early in the main Real Estate Selling Season. Time will tell where these two measures will settle in at.

Thank you for visiting our Real Estate Market report for Clark County WA. Please let us know if you have any questions or need help with your home or condo!
 

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PS - The real estate market is changing, prices are softening with loan costs presently at very low levels, keeping this an excellent time to List and Sell Your Property with Our Team; or, at least find out what your property is worth!  We offer a no-cost, no-obligation Clark County WA Real Estate Valuation, and invite you to try it out!

PPS - Looking to buy a property reasonably soon?  Interest rates are still at historically low rates.  You are invited to visit our web-page for Clark County WA Real Estate For Sale where it is Quite Easy to search by City, Neighborhood or by Category, with homes and real estate listings from the entire RMLS.  Sign-up Not Required!  The property and home listings shown are provided via many updates each day, and you will be e-mailed hourly with any new matches once you've signed up for a home search.

We also have the MLS Listings for these great towns in Clark County:  Battle Ground WA Real Estate For Sale | Brush Prairie WA Homes For Sale | Camas WA Homes for Sale | Hockinson WA Homes For Sale | La Center WA Homes for sale | Ridgefield WA Homes for sale | Real Estate for sale in Vancouver Washington | Washougal WA Real Estate | Yacolt WA Homes For Sale | Amboy WA Homes For Sale

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The information and charts in this Clark County WA real estate update (prepared by Vancouver WA Real Estate Sales Broker, John Slocum, CRS, SFR, our resident statistician) are based on home sales recorded in the Clark County WA 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 Clark County'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 and compiled.  The data and reports are deemed reliable but not guaranteed.