Local Sales up but Values are down

Local Business
Local home sales up, but values down
$210,000 was median price in May, 16.3% less than last year
Thursday, June 11 5:35 p.m.
BY CAMI JONERCOLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER
Sales of new and pre-owned homes in Clark County inched up from April to May, but the still-sluggish market and a spike in local foreclosures are dragging down home values.The median price of all new and pre-owned homes sold in May was $210,000, according to benchmarks, a service of Riley & Marks appraisal firm. In May 2008, Clark County's median was $251,000. That represents a 16.3 percent year-over-year decline.Shrinking sales prices are due in part to the county's rising number of short sale listings, said Sharry McNeel, a Realtor and sales associate with Coldwell Banker Barbara Sue Seal Properties in Vancouver. Time-consuming short-sale transactions — in which homeowners negotiate to get their lenders to take less than is owed on the mortgage — can cause deal-killing backups as buyers wait for months to hear whether the bank has accepted their offer."Until they can get some of these short sales off the market or moved, it's tough. There's a big clog in the drain," McNeel said.410 homes sold in May
Countywide, 410 homes were sold in May, a 17.7 percent decline from the May 2008 total of 498. Median price of pre-owned homes sold last month was $208,750, down from $246,000 in the same month last year. The median price of a new home was $248,212, down from $279,900 a year ago. It's hard to tell whether the free fall in prices is nearing bottom, said Dick Riley, a Riley & Marks co-owner."If we haven't, it's scary. When you look at a median of $210,000, that's really low," he said. Riley blamed job insecurity and the county's rising unemployment rate at 13.4 percent in April for slow home sales that have kept many buyers sidelined since 2007."When in doubt, what do people do? They don't do anything," Riley said. "They hunker down."He pointed out the market's positives, such as the county's high inventory of homes listed for sale, softening prices and mortgage interest rates that remain below 6 percent, despite inching upward. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.59 percent this week, up from 5.29 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac. The last time the average 30-year mortgage was higher was the week of Nov. 26, when it averaged 5.97 percent.Low loan rates
Low loan rates could be one reason May saw an uptick in the new-home sales category, as home builders worked to clear their backlog of inventory.For the month, 77 new homes were sold, compared with 48 new homes in April and 53 new homes in March."The builders pay higher interest rates," McNeel said.That has cut the profits of new-home builders over the past year, said Michael Shanaberger, sales and marketing director for Manor Homes in Vancouver."We're not really taking a loss, we're just not making any money," he said.Other home builders say they are scrambling to sell off "spec" houses, homes that were built without a buyer in hand.Kevin Wann, president of Vancouver-based Pacific Lifestyle Homes, said he sees the market stablizing."I am encouraged that people are out there," Wann said. "It doesn't feel like it's continuing to drop."