Seattle-area home prices continue to soar

It’s no surprise to people trying to buy a new home, but Seattle-area home prices continued their climb as the area posted the biggest gain of the top cities nationwide, except San Francisco.

The average price of existing single-family homes in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties rose 1.9 percent in March, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index released Tuesday.

Seattle-area home prices have risen 11.6 percent over the past year.

“It seems like most of the country is kind of slowing down from the real price frenzy of last year while price growth in Seattle is getting a little stronger to other parts of the country,” says real estate blogger Tim Ellis with Seattle Bubble.

Home prices nationally gained 0.9 percent in March and 12.4 percent over the past year, the report says.

Since the report only looks at the region as a whole, it fails to tell the real story, Ellis says. He points out that while price increases have slowed in some neighborhoods, sellers in hot neighborhoods such as Seattle’s Greenlake, Ballard and Maple Leaf continue getting more than their asking price, and prices in some neighborhoods are approaching, if not exceeding, 2007 levels.

“Inventory is not a lot higher than it was last year but it is at least a little higher and it does seem to be going up faster right while the interest from buyers is slowing slightly,” he says. “We’re still really strongly in a seller’s market, but with a pretty clear trend towards the buyer’s market.”

While the market remains strong, prices across the area are still nearly 16 percent lower than the peak in July 2007 Seattle-based real estate website Zillow predicts average home prices in the Seattle metro area will climb by about 6 percent in the next year. But Ellis cautions sellers there are no guarantees.

“It’s sort of a situation where I would say if you’re a seller, you don’t want to take it for granted the market will be in your favor six months from now or a year from now,” he says.