Pacific County saw a bit of an increase in sales in July, which is really encouraging. With a bit of sunshine, I think more buyers will be getting in the mood to buy!
There was one commercial sale, the Ilwaco Market, which changed hands on 7/15/10. In the Farm and Ranch category, Cranmoor Farm sold on 7/14/10. Single family homes, which in clude manufactured homes not in parks and condos totaled 12 with an average price of $132,633 and average 246 cummulative days on the market. Vacant land sales ranged from $$7,500 to $90,000 in 8 separate sales. Please note that these are strictly NWMLS listed sales. For more detail on the sales you can view the Cross_Client_Detail3870
How’s the rest of the state doing? Here are some excerpts from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service News Release:
Brokers reported 5,571 pending sales across the 21 counties in the Northwest MLS service area. That’s up slightly from June when they reported 5,547 pending sales, but down about 23 percent from twelve months ago when there were 7,279 pending sales.
NAR, in its prepared statement, also addressed the employment picture. “There could be couple of additional months of slow home-sales activity before picking up later this year, providing the economy continues to add jobs. We’ve turned the corner on home prices and they should remain fairly stable over the balance of the year, but we really need to see stronger job creation to have a meaningful recovery in the housing markets,” according NAR.
MLS director Matt Deasy, managing broker of Windermere Real Estate/East, suggested some would-be buyers may not fully understand the advantages of today’s low interest rates. Citing examples from Windermere’s affiliated mortgage company, Deasy said a buyer saves $374 a month on a $300,000 loan compared to three years ago. The principal and interest on a $300,000 mortgage at today’s rate of 4.375 percent would be $1,498. Three years ago, when the rate averaged 6.375 percent, the P&I payment would have been $1,872.
On a $400,000 loan, the savings would be almost $500 per month ($2,495 less $1,997 = $498). For the past 30 years, the average rate is approximately 9 percent, which puts the payment on a $300,000 loan at $2,414 – a difference of $916 per month. “Buyers are motivated when they see these comparisons,” Deasy remarked. He also believes there’s a pent-up demand based on the number of pre-approvals for loans in the mortgage company’s pipeline. He expects many of these potential buyers “will pull the trigger” once rates or prices start edging up.
