Our sizzling real estate market

By Nan Skinner

You've probably heard that our local real estate market is hot! It is. I like to back up statements like this with statistics. These stats are provided by Northwest Multiple Listing Service and compare the first quarter of 2016 with the first quarter of 2015.

Let's see what they say about the market in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park. *Days on Market - Average number of days from the time the house was put on the market until an offer was mutually accepted by seller and buyer.


            ACTIVE LISTINGS

            YTD 2015        YTD 2016

New Listings             258                     287
Average Price        $813,836        $1,064,063
Median Price         $541,175        $   588,687
Average DOM*          71                       60

            CLOSED SALES

            YTD 2015          YTD 2016

Sold                             193                      167
Avg Sale Price        $437,127           $513,175
Average DOM*           42                       16.5

The most significant numbers are the differences between the average list price and the average sale price, the differences between the average number of days on the market between 2015 and 2016, and the 8.5% increase in average sale price between first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016.

Also, notice that the number of homes sold in the first quarter of 2016 is less than the first quarter of 2015. It's too bad no one (that I know of) keeps records of the average number of offers made on houses because almost everyone I talk to in the biz has either received multiple offers on behalf of their sellers or been in competition with other offers when representing their buyers. I wonder how the ever-popular Spring market will be?

For questions or concerns, contact Nan Skinner at 206-734-9289 (call or text) or rayn@kw.com. Nan is a real estate consultant associated with Keller Williams Realty Bothell. She lives in and loves living in Shoreline.