I thought I would start off the new year with a review of what the last year looked like.

 

The graph to to the right is the "For Sale" and "Sold" activity for the last two years on a month to month basis. Click on it to see a larger image. I like this view as it allows you to see the change from year to year (different color lines) as well as from month to month (each individual color). The blue line (2008) and the green line (2007) represent the single family homes on the market in King County. The purple (2007) and red (2008) lines represent how many homes have sold in King County.

 

It is no surprise that the 2008 inventory (blue) is higher than the 2007 inventory. But, I was a little surprised to see how closely the last few months of 2008 have matched up to the last few months of 2007. Similarly, the numbers of homes sold (purple and red) for the last several months of 2007 and 2008 also match up nicely. The change just isn't as dramatic as the news media would have you believe.

 

Since I know what we really want to see is how the median prices performed over the last two years in King County. I created this graph for you as well. The 2007 prices are represented by the blue line and the 2008 prices are represented by the red line. Again, click on the graph for a larger image. The median represents the middle point of sales. Half the sales are above in price and half are below in price.

 

It's interesting to me again that there are a few months where they match up quite closely again. This time, however, it was many months ago at the beginning of the year. More important tome is that the median price has actually trended up, ever so slightly, the last 2 months. December of 2008 is still down compared to 2007, but, it will be very interesting to see how the first few months of this year perform.

 

King County is a big, diverse place. So, I duplicated the information on the area known as "East of Lake Sammamish". It covers from Lake Sammamish out to the east border of King County and, thus, represents a smaller area of King County that more accurately tracks our plateau neighborhoods. Please, click on the picture for a larger image.

 

As you might expect this graph shows the East of Lake Sammamish neighborhoods followed closely on the trends of the larger King County. While the 2008 numbers are below the 2007 numbers, active listings were down the last few months and solds were up slightly. Both positive trends.