Leavenworth Real Estate

Leavenworth Real Estate : 1st Quarter 2010

Leavenworth Home Prices 2010

Of the 15 single family homes that sold in the first three months of 2010, 13 sold for less than $325,000. The other two were a house on Lake Wenatchee that sold for $850,000 and a 8000 square foot log home on the river that sold for more than $2 million.  There were no sales in the $400-$600,000 price range at all.

If this was the only data, I would be worried. Luckily, the second quarter looks better already.

The two houses that have sold in April average $480,000 and the 8 pending sales have an average of $430,000. These prices are much more in line with past years’.

The other good news is that the volume, or number of sales, is up considerably. Last year we only had 9 sales in the first quarter. While 15 sales isn’t a return to the boom years, it is a big jump (almost 70%).

Leavenworth Sold Homes 2010

Why did prices fall in the 1st quarter? I think it had to do with the number of foreclosure sales in our market. We only had 3 foreclosure sales, but that represents 20% of the total number. Is 20% abnormal? Nope, according to Zillow, that looks to be about average for Washington state.

But 20% of sales coming from foreclosures is new to Leavenworth.  From my count, bank owned properties were only 2% of all sales in 2009.  Looking at pending sales, I would guess that the foreclosure trend will continue, though maybe not at 20%.

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Required Disclaimer

NOTE: This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by the North Central Washington Association of Realtors or its Multiple Listing Service. Neither the Association nor its MLS guarantees or are in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the Market.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Home Buyers, Leavenworth Real estate market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. Anonymous said at May 7th, 2010 at 7:08 pm

   Hey Geordie. Just wanted to point out in your blog entry of April 23rd you noted that the “8 pending sales” in Leavenworth area for April had an average price of $430K, yet in your most recent post of May 7th from my calculations the actual sold homes in April in Leavenworth had an average price of $365K and a median of $333K. If it weren’t for the $599K home that sold, the average would have been down to $326K from the data provided. Just wondering what gives? It makes your posts look quite deceiving. Thanks.

2. Geordie Romer said at May 8th, 2010 at 10:07 am

   Thanks for the great comment – sorry about the confusion.

   Here are three things to know about Pending Sales in general, before we talk about these recent sales.

   1. Not all Pending Sales close. Home inspections, inability to secure financing, and low appraisals are all reasons that some sales never finalize.

   2. Closings typically take 30-45 days but sometimes they take months. A pending sale in March may not close until June.

   3. Pending sale prices are the last listing price at the time of the contract. Often the sales price is much lower than the listing price and this isn’t public information until the sale is closed.

   Let’s look at why April’s closed sales don’t match up with the March Pending sales.

   1. A house that closed, wasn’t on the pending list at the time I wrote this post. It closed in the $300,000s and lowered the average.

   2. A house on Lake Wenatchee listed for $599,000 closed in May, not April. This will be on next month’s report.

   3. A house at Kahler Glen listed for $549,000 closed on April 6 for $480,000. Our MLS still shows it as Pending, but the county records show that it has closed.

   I hope this clears up any confusion.

3. Anonymous said at May 8th, 2010 at 8:52 pm

   Thank you very much for clearing that up, it makes sense. Appreciate your market coverage and insights!

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