Condo Market in June: Prices Down, Sales Really Down
Yesterday Redfin released new data on the Seattle Area market showing that for the city of Seattle condo prices decreased 2.7% in June to $287,000, and were down 1.4% year over year. Sales volume decreased 18.2% to 207 sales from May to June, and decreased 21.9% year over year (there were 234 condos sold June 2009).
Inventory Up 4.5% Month over Month
In June the number of condos for sale in Seattle increased 4.5% to 1,661 from 1,590 in May, inventory is down 1.0% year over year.
Here’s the number of condos for sale in June by neighborhood.
| # For Sale June ’10 | Mo/Mo Change | # For Sale June ’09 | Yr/Yr Change | |
| Ballard | 78 | 11.4% | 87 | -10.3% |
| Belltown | 199 | 5.9% | 207 | -3.9% |
| Capitol Hill | 202 | 12.8% | 201 | 0.5% |
| Central District | 50 | 8.7% | 24 | 108.3% |
| Downtown | 476 | 4.8% | 512 | -7.0% |
| Fremont | 28 | -6.7 | 28 | 0.0% |
| Queen Anne | 214 | 2.9% | 190 | 2.9% |
| South Lake Union | 28 | -3.4% | 22 | 27.3% |
| West Seattle | 160 | 1.9% | 162 | -1.2% |
Sales Volume Down 18.2% Month over Month
Now that the federal tax credit is no longer available it isn’t surprising to see sales volume drop so much. I expect that sales will be flat to slightly down in July. I don’t think we’ll see such a big drop off for another month in a row.
Here’s the # of condos bought in June 2010 by neighborhood. Instead of showing the month over month increase which is skewed by the number of weekdays in a month we’re showing the weekday rate of change for a better comparison in sales volume:
| # Sold June ’10 | Mo/Mo Weekday Rate Change | # Sold June ’09 | Yr/Yr Change | |
| Ballard | 10 | -36.4% | 18 | -44.4% |
| Belltown | 29 | -20.9% | 23 | 26.1% |
| Capitol Hill | 25 | -14.8% | 40 | -37.5% |
| Central District | 9 | 43.2% | 52 | -10.0% |
| Downtown | 60 | -21.5% | 52 | 15.4% |
| Fremont | 8 | 27.3% | 7 | 14.3% |
| Queen Anne | 18 | -31.3% | 32 | -43.8% |
| South Lake Union | 8 | -36.4% | 1 | 700% |
| West Seattle | 15 | -42.7% | 11 | 36.4% |
Median Prices Decrease 2.7% to $287,000
Not only did sales decrease in June but the median price of condos did as well.
| June ’10 | Mo/Mo Change | June ’09 | Yr/Yr Change | $/Sq. Ft. | |
| Ballard | $302,475 | 4.3% | $310,975 | -2.7% | $362 |
| Belltown | $430,000 | 7.5% | $360,000 | 19.4% | $453 |
| Capitol Hill | $294,000 | -2.6% | $274,000 | 7.3% | $402 |
| Central District | $285,000 | -2.9% | $252,600 | 12.8% | $396 |
| Downtown | $347,000 | -8.7% | $371,058 | -6.5% | $432 |
| Fremont | $241,000 | -7.2% | $242,500 | -0.6% | $299 |
| Queen Anne | $272,500 | 9.0% | $281,250 | -3.1% | $39 |
| South Lake Union | $289,750 | -0.7% | $350,000 | -17.2% | $327 |
| West Seattle | $259,000 | -24.9% | $248,000 | 4.4% | $279 |
For more color on sales in June check out our weekly series of recent sale posts.
What Does the Future Hold?
I suspect we’ll see sales activity be flat to slightly down in July, and inventory will increase as more people list before August which is when the real estate community typically heads out on vacation.
What Do You Think?
Have you been shopping for a condo recently? What do you think of what’s available for sale? Made any offers? How did those go?
Redfin has a spreadsheet available if you want to dig into the data for for a neighborhood or city not included here (or for single-family home data.)
Disclaimer: I work at Redfin and run the marketing team. This is one of the projects I work on.
