More Takes On September Figures

The usual suspects have chimed in this morning with their detailed stories (as well as graphs, figures, and photographs) reacting to the September sales figures.

Elizabeth Rhodes in the Times:

For the third straight month, there were more sales but fewer homes to choose from in King and Snohomish counties, compared with the same period a year ago, according to September sales numbers released yesterday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service

Brad Wong in the P-I:

After losing one Seattle house in a bidding war, Rachel Schulenburg spent part of Thursday touring a three-bedroom brick Tudor in Magnolia, which is listed for $615,000.

Schulenburg, 32, arrived from Chicago on Oct. 1 after her husband had landed a job with a Seattle insurance company. "We're definitely excited," she said after visiting the house. "But the multiple-offer thing is frustrating. It's something we're not used to."

But new residents such as Schulenburg, and younger adults remaining and buying in the Seattle region, kept the real estate market strong in September, as the median sales price of a single-family house in King County grew to $381,250, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Thursday.

And finally, Clayton Park with the King County Journal:

Home prices on the Eastside shot up to an all-time high in September, breaking the record set the previous month, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Thursday.

In southeast King County, overall home prices dipped in September compared with August, but remained considerably higher than prices a year ago.

Each article has its own angle on the numbers, with Rhodes speculating on the disparity between faltering prices in Boston, D.C., and California, and Seattle's still-burning market, and both Wong and Park looking forward to increased activity next month brought on by the Microsoft class-action lawsuit payout. I could easily make each one into its own post, but since they're all centered around the September figures, that seemed redundant.

(Elizabeth Rhodes, Seattle Times, 10.07.2005)
(Brad Wong, Seattle P-I, 10.07.2005)
(Clayton Park, King County Journal, 10.07.2005)