Battle Ground Real Estate Market Trends – Washington

News for Battle Ground, WA - February 6th, 2012 12:27pm
Good Monday Morning!

The sunshine has certainly been welcome here in the Vancouver and Portland area! It looks like a full week of it ahead. Enjoy!
A very low inventory of homes for sale in our area continues to make it tough for buyers. This is especially true in the first time buyer price ranges of $200,000 and below. This could continue to be the situation for the months ahead. If this condition continues it could cause the end of the buyers market and slowly shift our market in favor of sellers. For first time home buyers this could make it much harder to purchase a home down the road. We will keep you updated as this unfolds.
Have An Awesome Week!

Dennis

News for Battle Ground, WA - January 18th, 2012 10:58am
County home sales improve, supply and median price decline

Clark County real estate brokers sold 14 percent more houses in December compared with the same month last year, according to Portland-based RMLS listing service, which only tracks the home sales that are listed and sold by licensed Realtors. In December, the county's median home price - half sold for more, half for less - of $176,000 was down 12 percent from December 2010 when the median price was $199,900. The inventory of homes listed for sale dropped slightly along with the price, RMLS reported. About 6.5 months worth of existing housing inventory was listed on the market in December, which means it would take about 6.5 months to sell all of the houses for sale if no new homes were added. The supply was down from an eight-month supply of inventory in December 2010.

Dennis

News for Battle Ground, WA - January 2nd, 2012 12:50pm
It is hard to believe, but 2012 has roared in and we are all moving forward into the New Year! I wish you a Happy and prosperous 2012!!!
2012 starts out with a bright spot in the Real Estate market and that is the continuation of historic low mortgage interest rates. 2011 saw rates hit record lows and hold that pattern throughout the year.
In Freddie Freddie Mac's results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey®, the average fixed mortgage rates finishing the year near their all-time historic lows helping to keep homebuyer affordability high. Averaging 3.95 percent, the 30-year fixed has been at or below 4.00 percent for the past nine consecutive weeks and only twice in 2011 did it average above 5.00 percent. This has certainly helped the national Real Estate market by making home purchases affordable and helping to make loan qualification a possibility for many who otherwise would be out of the home purchase market.
Will mortgage rates continue this low level during 2012? Indications at this time point to a positive "YES"! This should hold true for no less than the first half of 2012. With the prediction that homes values will continue their decline in most national markets through 2012, the possibility on home ownership may become even more realistic for many.

Have An Awesome Week!

Dennis

News for Battle Ground, WA - December 21st, 2011 5:54pm
Clark County employers have added a net 1,200 jobs in the past 12 months, and the county's unemployment rate has slowly inched downward, according to figures released Tuesday.

While those numbers indicate progress, they also show the county lagging behind the state's recovery, Scott Bailey, regional labor economist for the state Employment Security Department, said Tuesday.

And the decline in the county's jobless rate — it went from 13.2 percent in November 2010 to an estimated 11 percent in November 2011, roughly a two percentage point drop — is mainly because unemployed workers have given up looking for work, Bailey said.

As a result, the labor force participation rate has fallen and, along with it, the county's jobless rate. "There was slow employment growth, but not enough to put a dent in unemployment," Bailey wrote in his "Southwest Washington Labor Market News" report. "The revised unemployment rate has trended downward, but only because workers have been giving up on finding a job."

What's more, first-time claims for unemployment insurance remain at high levels, Bailey wrote, "indicating that while there are net job gains, there's still considerable job loss being generated."

Dennis