While the jury is still out on whether Seattle is beginning a turnaround in its condo market, the latest data points out buyers are ever so slowly getting off the fence. The Seattle Condo Blog for www.SeattleCondosandLofts.com, is showing upticks in January for median sales prices by nearly 10 percent to $335,000, mostly as a result of higher end closings in down town.

Nevertheless, the two other data points that usually point to a turning market have moved in the "recovery" direction -- inventory and pending sales.

"While pending transactions (condo units going under contract) remained below last year's level (-20.2%), there was a 22% increase in the number of pending transactions last month compared to December," according to the site. "Historically, January sales volume outpaces December, so we'd expect these results. Yet, it is a positive signal that even with the current economy crisis people are buying real estate … the number of pending condo transactions increased for the second consecutive month."

Median prices have continued an upward trend since bottoming out for 2008 in October below $290,000. Since then, the median price has edged upward each month through January. (See this chart.)

Another sign of the market slipping back to normal is the absorption rate -- the rate whereby the monthly supply of homes is measured. "The citywide condo inventory supply rate (absorption rate) decreased to 7.8 months in last month based on pending transactions. Although Seattle remains a buyers market, the rate has been trending back towards balanced market conditions."

Published: March 2, 2009

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