DataQuick Information Systems - August 20, 2008
A total of 39,507 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That was up 12.2 percent from 35,202 in June and up 12.3 percent from 35,185 for July last year. While below the 47,756 average for the last 21 Julys, last month's sales count was off the record low sales level which the market went into last September.
Of the homes sold in June, 44.8 percent were foreclosure resales, up from a revised 42.5 percent in June and 7.6 percent in July a year ago.
The median price paid for a home last month was $318,000, down 3.0 percent from $328,000 for the month before, and down 33.5 percent from $478,000 for July a year ago. Around half the drop in median is due to depreciation, the other half due to shifts in the types of homes selling, and how those homes are financed.
The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,501. That was down from $1,543 in June, and down from $2,316 for July a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, mortgage payments are back to where they were in early 2002. They are 27.8 percent below the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 41.7 percent below the current cycle's peak in June 2006.
MDA DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The numbers cover all sales, new and resale, houses and condos.
Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity is at record levels, financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is near an all-time low. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, non-owner occupied buying activity is flat, DataQuick reported.