Business - Business News

POSTED: Saturday, Sep. 05, 2009

Whatcom County sees another quiet month in home sales

It's been a quiet summer season for Whatcom County home sales, and August was no different.

Last month, real estate agents sold 182 homes in Whatcom County, down 10.3 percent compared to August 2008, according to a report from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The median price for those homes was $279,000, down less than 1 percent from the previous year.

With the peak home-buying season now complete, it appears Whatcom County couldn't match last summer, a period when the housing market was significantly slowing down as troubles surfaced with the credit market.

From May through August of this year, real estate agents sold 768 homes, compared to 812 for the same period in 2008. During those four months in 2007, there were 1,168 homes sold by agents in Whatcom County.

"We couldn't quite match the sales of the previous summer, and prices continue to remain soft," said Lylene Johnson of the Muljat Group. Johnson analyzes NWMLS data in Whatcom County. "I don't think we've reached a bottom yet with prices, and I'm concerned about what will happen when the homebuyer's tax credit comes to an end. That could lead to a further slowdown in sales."

The $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers is scheduled to end Nov. 30, and the buyer must be in possession of the house by then. Typical sales are lasting about 30 days, so homebuyers need to make an offer that's accepted around the end of October to qualify for the credit, Johnson said.

One trend Johnson noticed: A surge in local pending sales that began in the spring didn't translate to as many closed sales as she would have expected by August. She said there's been a backlog of pendings as banks and appraisers spend more time scrutinizing potential sales, but there also have been situations where agreed-upon sales have been scuttled.

There was an increase in home-buying activity in other NWMLS areas, which include most of Western Washington. Of the 19 counties the NWMLS tracks, 4,418 homes sold in August, up 1.4 percent from August 2008. The median price was $285,000, down 9.2 percent year over year.