Northwest MLS reports increased activity in June

Northwest Multiple Listing Service members reported 7,539 mutually accepted offers in June, up nearly 2,000 transactions – or 36 percent – from the year-ago total of 5,547 pending sales of single-family homes and condominiums.

At midyear, Northwest MLS brokers have logged 41,151 pending sales for a slight improvement on the total of 41,001 for the first six months of 2010 when sales were stimulated by a federal tax incentive.

Closed sales for the 21 counties in the Northwest MLS service area are running slightly behind 2010 figures. Through June, members have completed 26,034 sales, which compares to a total of 27,624 closings for the midpoint of 2010.

“It feels like we have hit the bottom of the market,” said Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate. “Buyer confidence has definitely returned.”

Prices on last month’s closed sales area-wide were down about 9 percent from the same month a year ago. The median price for sales that closed last month was $240,950; a year ago it was $265,000. In January, 2001 it was $250,000.

Northwest MLS members added 10,334 new listings to inventory last month, about the same number as a year ago when they added 10,354 new listings.

With those additions, there were 36,871 single-family homes and condominiums offered for sale in the MLS database at the end of June. That’s down about 14 percent from a year ago when inventory stood at 42,940 active listings.