Monday, May 07, 2007
Kitsap Real Estate Market Report - April 2007
The listing inventory has risen sharply and inventory turnover has fallen. Pending sales remained nearly the same and the number of closed sales dropped somewhat. Pending and closed sales in Poulsbo are booming, with a significant portion of these coming from new construction.
Residential Highlights
Kitsap County residential inventory in April (1960 listings) was up 13% from March. The April inventory was 49% higher than last year, up from 47% last month. The number of year to date pending sales was down 2% compared to a year ago - slightly down from last month. Poulsbo YTD pending sales are up 41% compared to a year ago - 35% of the current pendings are new construction presales. Bainbridge Island year to date pending sales are up 2% from a year ago (they were up 21% last month). The number of YTD closed sales is down by 9% compared to a year ago - down from minus 5% last month. Poulsbo YTD closed sales are up 35% from a year ago. 20% of this year’s closed sales are new construction - mostly at Poulsbo Place II. Bainbridge Island closed sales were up 2% from a year ago after being plus 17% last month. Bainbridge was off to a hot start but appears to be slowing.
Prices are steady…
The YTD median sales price of $285,000 remained the same as in March. This is up 8.2% from a year ago. It’s still important for sellers to be striving to be most competitively priced among their competition.
Seller expectations…
The median list price for the year remained steady at $350,000, about the same as the last 3 months - list prices are not going up. This is about 6% higher than a year ago. The inventory turnover (total homes on the market divided by number sold last month) is 6.64 months, up from 5.22 months in March. A year ago this number was 3.65 months, and that was already reflecting a market slowdown from its 2005 levels. Today a seller has a 15% chance of selling his/her home in a given month, and that percentage is even lower if you come from a community with new construction, since new construction sales tend to displace residential resales. Competitive pricing is essential, and most offers we see presented are negotiating on price.
The distribution of pending sales increases varied widely in the County. Areas where sales were depressed the most last year (Bainbridge, Poulsbo) appear to have benefited most from the spurt in sales. Here is a snapshot:
Bainbridge Island +2% (+22% last month)
Poulsbo +41% (+19% last month) - 15 new construction presales in April
Bremerton -13% (-10% last month)
Kingston +13% (+45% last month)
Silverdale +7% (-6% last month)
Port Orchard +8% (+9% last month)
Olalla -28% (-30% last month)
Statistics not compiled or published by NWMLS
