See the table below. I’ve taken a snapshot of our market to show just one story in our market this year. I’ve used my neighborhood, zip code 98406, to illustrate the workings of 2017. If you look at the “Year to Date” column you’ll see that number of listings last year was roughly the same as the year before – so why does it feel like there is so much less inventory? The reason is that that the buying pool has expanded dramatically, thus creating a definite shortage of homes especially in the more “affordable” price ranges. The next number to look at is “Days on Market Until Sale” – this number was up from 2016 which is completely surprising because last year it seemed that every transaction resulted in a multiple offer situation that made homes fly off of the market. I think this number illustrates that there are some sellers with a bit unreasonable expectations about the market and have overvalued their home – Tacoma Buyers do their homework and still must feel that their home purchase is a wise one, we do not have a “pool of desperation” as Seattle does. Finally, the number that makes many home owners happy is the “Average Sales Price” – up 13.8% last year. Wow!
This data reflects only one zip code, if you’d like a report that examines your zip code let me know – I’d be happy to share it.
Best,
Shannon
