With homes prices in Olympia WA stabilizing for the past year combined with low inventory, the Olympia WA real estate market is off to a busy selling season, and is poised to start a couple of months sooner than typical.
Here is this month’s real estate market report for Olympia WA in Thurston County by Francine Viola of Coldwell Banker Evergreen Olympic Realty.
Olympia Home Prices
As I’ve been reporting, the Olympia real estate market has stabilized and is beginning to show measurable signs of improvement
Why is it worth noting that sales prices have stabilized?
Since the highest point of our sales prices in 2007, the market has been in a decline since then. Noting that prices have stopped falling downward indicates, along with other factors, that a recovery is on its way.
Why are low inventory numbers important?
At the highest point in the Olympia real estate market, the market was flooded with homes for sale and there were not enough buyers to absorb the inventory. With inventory numbers low, sellers have a better chance of selling because buyers have fewer homes to choose from. In looking at the percentage of pending listings to new listings, for November 2012 we are at 99%. That means that just about for every new listing that comes on the market, another listing goes off the market into pending. In our “hot” seller’s market, this percentage was 111%. For every one listing that came on the market, more than one listing came off the market, keeping inventory numbers low.
Low interest rates haven’t spurred a buying frenzy but it hasn’t hurt, either.
When interest rates began to fall and hover around 4%, we didn’t think it could fall any farther. My buyers now are getting between 3% and 3.25% interest rates. What has been a stronger factor in the recovery of the Olympia real estate market is the prices of homes are more affordable than they have been in the past 5 years.
Olympia Real Estate Report Summary
The average sales price in November in Olympia is $232,884.
Average Days On Market in November in Olympia (for homes priced right) is 27 days. For listings that needed a price reduction, the average days on market was 205 days. What this tells sellers is to price the home according to the market conditions. Sellers who priced right not only realized a sale, on average, in 27 days but also sold at, on average, 98.1% of their list price. The sellers who had to reduce their listing prices saw lesser gains of 83.1% of their original list price and waited almost ten times as long to sell.
Active Inventory (the number of homes for sale) is 1,126. The “hot” seller’s market saw inventory levels at 675 in December 2004. And at the peak of our “artic cold” seller’s market saw inventory levels soar at 2,333 in August 2007.
Find Homes for Sale in Olympia WA
Visit my website to search for homes in Olympia WA or sign up and get notified when Olympia homes that meet your criteria come up on the market. This is a great service to have especially since inventory numbers are dropping. Be the first to know of a new listing!
To find out what your home is worth in the current Olympia real estate market, email or call me today at (360) 359-0689.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season!
