King County median price dropped to $311,748 in 2011

Members of Northwest Multiple Listing Service closed 56,290 single-family home and condominium sales during 2011, improving on 2010’s volume by 4,290 transactions for a 7.4 percent increase, according to the association’s year-end release.

King County, which accounted for 40 percent of last year’s sales, had a median selling price of $311,748, down about 10.7 percent from the previous year’s figure of $349,000.

Both median prices and inventory dropped compared to 2010. Prices fell 10.3 percent system wide, while the number of new listings added to inventory was down more than 13 percent. Brokers added 101,430 listings to the database during 2011, which was 15,269 fewer than the total number for 2010.

Last year’s completed sales included 48,952 single-family homes (up 7 percent from 2010) and 7,338 condominiums (an increase of more than 10 percent from 2009). Together, these sales were valued at more than $16.7 billion, about $900 million less than the previous year (a decline of 5.1 percent).

Last year’s median price for closed sales of single-family homes and condos was $235,000. In 2010 the median selling price was $262,000. For the 21 counties included in the NWMLS report, the median price ranged from $120,000 in Grays Harbor County to $387,500 in San Juan County.

Other findings in the annual NWMLS report:

• The pace of sales as measured by “months supply” (an estimate of how long it would take for all inventory of active listings to sell at the current pace assuming no new inventory is added) showed a system-wide total of 5.02 months, improving on a figure of 6.42 months for 2010. Using this measurement, Snohomish County had the lowest supply, at 3.69 months, followed by King County at 3.75 months. (Economists consider a supply of 3-to-6 months to be a balanced market, meaning the market favors neither buyers nor sellers.)
• Single-family homes accounted for about 87 percent of the sales volume as measured by units, and about 90 percent of the dollar volume.
• About half the homes that sold last year had 3 bedrooms, while 75 percent of condos had 2 or fewer bedrooms.
• A comparison of median prices of home sales within school districts in the Northwest MLS market areas shows the most expensive homes were situated in the Mercer Island School District ($824,000), followed by Bellevue ($550,000) and Issaquah ($530,000). The least expensive homes were in the Queets-Clearwater School District in Jefferson County ($30,000), the Vader School District in Lewis County ($47,900) and the Wilson Creek School District in Grant County ($52,500).
• The highest priced single-family home in the NWMLS system that sold last year was located in the Town of Hunts Point on the eastern shore of Lake Washington, which commanded $14,750,000. The highest priced condominium, located in downtown Kirkland, brought $3,249,000.