Shrinking inventory challenges Snohomish County home buyers

  • The Herald Business Journal
  • Thursday, February 4, 2016 4:12pm
  • Business

Supply continues to be a problem for the Snohomish County real estate market.

The total number of active residential listings in the county dropped from 1,918 homes and condos in January 2015 to 1,267 last month. That’s a decline of 34 percent year over year.

And that makes for a tight market: “There haven’t been any battle royals on the premises, but it could happen any day now,” quipped Dick Beeson, the principal managing broker at RE/MAX Professionals in Tacoma, in a news release.

Measured another way, Snohomish County has just under 1.6 months of inventory on the real estate market. King County also is having supply problems with 1.4 months of inventory on the market.

Snohomish county saw an increase of sales year over year. There were 811 closed sales last month compared with 686 a year ago, or a bump of 18.2 percent.

“We’re selling virtually all new listings, many with multiple offers in all the market areas of King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties in the price range where 90 percent of the sales activity is happening,” said J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott, in the release.

Real estate agents say potential sellers aren’t to listing their homes, because they want to find a new home first.

“A true conundrum exists,” said George Moorhead, designated broker at Bentley Properties, in the release. “For sellers there is no better time in history, but the concern we hear is there’s no place to move.”

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