The monthly Ballard Real Estate 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 April below:

In early spring the housing market traditionally sees an influx of listings, and this April was no different. 224 new homes came on the market, beating out March’s number of 194. This upswing in inventory is welcomed by buyers who are still looking for the right home in our area.

At 155, April saw a tie with March for the number of homes sold. This puts our housing inventory at about a 1.4 month supply – a bit more than March but still a low supply.

Have you noticed the increase in new home construction?  In the first 4 months of 2014 there have been 110 new construction listings added to the inventory.  To compare, for the same time period last year, the number was 46. Home buyers are starting to have more new construction choices, especially in the townhome style of home.

In April, the average sale price climbed to $533,000, up from March’s $525,000. That March price was a slide from February’s $531,000, but this month’s numbers don’t show a continuing downward price trend in our area. The average length of time on the market was 25 days in April, close to March’s average of 26 days. There are still many multiple offers and pre-inspections.

Additions to the condo supply have been up and down in the last few months with 59 coming on the market in March and 49 in April. The number of condos sold was up from 34 in March to 45 in April, so fewer came on this month than last, but more sold.

At the same time, the average condo price has been coming down – from $347,000 in January, to $315,000 in February and $286,000 in March and now $266,000 in April.  As more new construction condos become available (we can see the signs for these new condo complexes in the downtown Ballard area) we can expect a rise in condo prices.

In April about 6% of “solds” (homes and condos) were short sales or bank owned, up a bit from last month.

Studies by the National Association of Homebuilders show that low energy bills are important to homeowners.   If you are interested in saving some money on your home energy use, check out the Sustainable Ballard B-Green Building Talks. (www.sustainableballard.org). These talks are held in the homes of our neighbors who have retrofitted their homes for better energy efficiency.

Greater Ballard is Greenwood, Green Lake, Wallingford and other close by neighborhoods identified as “705” in the NWMLS.  All residential and condo numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand and unless noted does not include new construction. Statistics not compiled or published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Apartment data from Dupre + Scott  Apartment Development Report.