Monday Market has a quirk

What's this odd thing in closed sales in Vancouver, Washington?

Market Snapshot 2009/01/25

I noticed something peculiar this week... Our market has been seeing 45 to 55 sales close (actual transfer of title) each week for the past few months. Actual range is 34 to 61 since beginning of November; last week only 18 homes showed as closed sales. That's half of the number from the week before.

How does that relate to the decreasing ratio of active to pending? There was another slight dip in the number of active to pending, although both numbers increased (active homes to 3329 and pending to 453).

Here's a guess: And it's just me thinking online...but what if the growing number of homes pending is the result of fewer actually closing? Why would there be a sudden drop in the number of closed transactions? Did the little increase in interest rates push that many people out of the ability to acquire a loan at the last minute? The statistical average price of the homes sold is $273,000. This may suggest that these are typically not first-time homebuyers. I also noticed that about half were sold as short sale or bank owned. That's an increase in proportion over the monthly numbers I've been seeing.

How's the 'sold' number going to look next week? I'm curious. We have a slight drop in the difference in number selling and number buying, offset by this strange drop in number actually closing. Should we see evidence of a backlog of closings evidenced in a spike in number closed next week? I don't know. I can see though, that if you can buy, it's a very good time to buy. Call me if you'd like some help deciding!

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