The January Greater Ballard Real Estate Market Recap

Long time Ballard resident and local Real Estate Broker Sharon Giampietro will be sharing a post on My Ballard each month to keep readers informed about the local real estate market. Giampietro comes from a long line of realtors and has lived in Ballard for 30 years. She is currently a Broker at Windermere Real Estate in Greenwood.

Check out Giampietro’s recap of how Greater Ballard fared in January below:

In January there were 148 new NW Multiple Listing Service listings added to the housing supply, an increase from January 2013 when 111 homes were added. Buyers were happy to see January’s increase in new listings especially after only 59 were added in December 2013. Sellers often wait until after the holiday season to sell, which traditionally makes December a slower month. It’s good news that there is more housing stock, but Brokers and buyers still comment on the lack of inventory. “Sellers’ market”, “low inventory”, “no inventory”, “hot”, “sizzling” commented Brokers who I recently asked to “sum up” the market.

Buyer activity created that “heat “and “sizzle” and 102 homes were sold C many with multiple offers. Hope springs eternal for increased choices in every price range. At the same time, buyers express concern about rising prices as they continue to look for the home that will work for them. Interestingly, in January, home prices came down slightly with an average sale price of $490,000 compared to December’s average sale price of $513,000.

Looking back at January 2013, the average home price of sold homes then was $453,000, meaning that year to year we saw a 10% increase in the average home price.

A relatively low 10% of “solds” were short sales or bank owned. This corner of the market- sometimes relied on to find a “bargain”- is shrinking in our area.

Twice as many new condos were listed in January 2014 as compared with January 2013, and the average sale price increased from $275,000 in January 2013 to $293,000 in January 2014. The average length of time on the market went from 68 days to 57 days. Condos made a bit of a comeback and the demand for them may go up, as much (but not all) of the new multi-family construction we see around Ballard is apartments, not condos.

*The Greater Ballard area is the northwest area of Seattle including Greenwood, Greenlake, Wallingford and other close by neighborhoods. Dollar amounts are rounded to the nearest thousand. Data does not include new construction or condos except as noted. Statistics not compiled or published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.