Chris Loeliger
Windermere Real Estate/S.C.A., Inc
Chris Loeliger | Direct: 425-785-9217 | Email: cloeliger@windermere.com
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I Hate Bad Information (Information Junkie Part 2)
Posted on February 1, 2011
Ignorance is bliss!
You've all heard the cliche. While I don't entirely believe in that cliche I do believe bad information is worse than no information at all. (They are a little different in my mind, really!)
Take for example the latest release of the S&P/Case-Schiller Index covered by this news article. I'm sure the information is accurate. I have no problem with that. But it's old. Really old! The information in that article covers the housing market for November. A lot has happened in the housing market since the end of November let alone since the beginning of November.
That article reported that November prices for homes were down all over the country, Seattle included. Since that data is old, I think you deserve the most recent data, including December (and January's data is just about 5 days away), for some of our local areas. In fact, I looked at a bunch of areas starting with big areas and moving to smaller areas. So, here's all of King County.
This is the last 15 months of average sold prices (in blue) and median sold prices (in red) for all of King County. You're probably thinking to yourself that after 15 months the prices have neither gone up nor down a whole lot and you would be right. Note that, sure enough, the average price dipped in November, but the median rose. Or note that even more recently in December both the average and the median rose.
Zooming in a little bit, here's the picture of the last 15 months in Seattle.
Just like King County, the average for November is down slightly but the median is just barely up. Again, in December, the more recent data, the average is up but the median is flat.If we go East across Lake Washington to the Eastside the prices are up strongly in December.
For Area 540 (a smaller portion of the Eastside) the pattern holds true again with prices up in December
This pattern holds right on down to the the smallest level you can look at without there being too few houses to matter. Here are the prices on homes in Zip Code 98074 (mostly the City of Sammamish). Sure enough the prices rose in December.
So while the national media is still reporting on November's down data we already have data in hand showing that December was up! People, that November data is Bad Information!
One more cliche you've heard no doubt, Location, Location, Location! This one I do give a lot of credence to as it relates to real estate. Prices really do depend on your exact street, neighborhood, community, town or city. I've said previously that I am not concerned with prices. But, as long as the media is going to fixate on prices, report prices that are old and no longer accurate, or report prices from a national survey as if they apply to you personally I am going to fight back.
If you want to know what the prices are in your city, your neighborhood, your street or even your home, give me a call, shoot me a text, email me, tweet me, come see me in my office face to face (gasp!), whatever. I'll get you the exact details of the prices you want.
Chris
425.785.9217
Twitter: @cloeliger
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