Home sales cool as season turns

Clark County home sales cooled during September, with listings, sales, and median prices all down from August numbers, according to the latest “Market Action” report from RMLS, the regional real estate listing service.

However, the real estate market still showed year-over-year growth from last September, with a 19 percent increase in closed sales and a 4.2 percent rise in median sales price, to a September median of $245,500, RMLS reported.

The inventory of homes offered for sale remained low, with a supply of 3.7 months. That inventory has hovered at around four months since April.

Terry Wollam, a Realtor with Wollam & Associates Real Estate in Vancouver, said the continuation of a low inventory into September marks a noteworthy difference from the last two years, when the supply of housing went up with fall’s arrival. A continuation of the tight supply through the winter would “set us up to see another bump in prices in February through March/April next year,” Wollam said in an email. With the Federal Reserve indicating that it will keep interest rates low, Wollam predicted “a healthy seller’s market heading into next year.”

In September, RMLS reported 676 pending sales, up nearly 33 percent from last September but 3.3 percent lower than the 699 pending sales in August.

There was a 19 percent year-over-year increase in closed sales in September, to 645 for the month. That was a 2.4 percent drop from August, when 661 closed sales were recorded.

RMLS reported 769 new listings in September, barely above last September’s 764 listings. Still, listings were down by 12.7 from August, where 881 houses came onto the market. The number of new listings has declined each month since May.

Median home prices — half sold for more, half for less — dropped from $250,000 in August to $245,500 in September. Average time for a house to stay on the market was 87 days, up from 84 days in August. By geographic sub-area, Camas-Washougal reported the highest median price in Clark County, at $340,000. The lowest was in Central Vancouver, at $178,000.