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Clark County home sales ran to extremes in 2010

Tax credits inspired homebuyers in first half of year; market still recovering

By Cami Joner
Published: February 27, 2011, 12:00am
3 Photos
Realtors say one-story ranch-style houses, like this Cascade Park home, are among the best sellers in Clark County's housing market.
Realtors say one-story ranch-style houses, like this Cascade Park home, are among the best sellers in Clark County's housing market. Photo Gallery

Clark County home sales picked up through the first half of 2010, then dropped off again after the June 30 cutoff date for federal tax credits to first-time and move-up buyers.

But real estate expert Mike Lamb expects the local housing market to gradually recover in 2011, despite slumping sales in the last half of 2010 and an unhealthy housing market dominated by foreclosures and short-sale activity.

The median sales price (half sold for more, half for less) was $198,500 for all new and existing homes sold here in October, down 2.2 percent from the median of $203,000 in the same month in 2009 and the county’s lowest since January 2005, according to “benchmarks,” a sales tracking service of Riley & Marks Inc., a Vancouver appraisal firm.

There were 3,045 Clark County houses sold from January through June in 2010, a 24.5 percent sales increase over the same period in 2009. During the latter half of 2010, 2,190 houses were sold, down 32.5 percent from the 3,244 homes sold in the same period the previous year.

Falling sales were a market reaction to the end of the tax credits, said Lamb, an associate broker for Windermere Real Estate Stellar Group in Vancouver.

“The situation sucks demand forward, and then you have a vacant period afterward,” he said.

The tax credits provided an $8,000 refund to first-time homebuyers and $6,500 to move-up buyers. Without the incentives, sales were not as robust, Lamb said.

In the meantime, Clark County’s inventory of foreclosures remained high, with one out of every 308 houses in some stage of foreclosure in October, compared with one out of every 547 houses in the same month in 2009.

Lamb said the climbing supply of foreclosures could spur recovery.

“It provides inventory that is attractive to some buyers,” he said, especially buyers who are interested in bargain-priced fixer-uppers.

Lamb also called the increase in foreclosures a sign that more bank lenders are starting to follow through with repossessions, a process that frees distressed owners from burdensome mortgage loans that they can no longer handle.

“When people are not making (mortgage) payments, there’s a huge energy sink, in terms of the environment. Usually the house is no longer being maintained,” Lamb said.

He predicted selling the foreclosures off will eventually increase property values and breathe new life into depreciated neighborhoods.

“Once the house gets into the foreclosure process and gets resold, you have someone living there who can afford it. Then you start seeing things turn around,” Lamb said.

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