Review of home sales in Medina Washington over the last 2 years

I was doing a BPO (broker’s price opinion) on a short sale in Medina. Medina is considered very exclusive and also has many water front and water view homes. Here is a satellite view:
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For the BPO, and my own education, I did some research on the local sales history according to MLS records. I thought I’d share them with you.

Here are the sales states, for each six month period since the last half of 2007.

Period	Homes Sold	Average Home Size (SF)	Average Price / SQ Foot	Average Days on Market	High Price	Low Price	Median Price
July-Dec 2007	30	3,674	$666.98	91	$7,900,000	$800,000	$1,935,000
Jan-June 2008	15	3,431	$460.78	148	$3,700,000	$735,000	$1,350,000
July-Dec 2008	9	3,673	$470.50	186	$2,725,000	$985,000	$1,350,000
Jan-June 2009	10	3,229	$419.33	162	$1,900,000	$520,000	$1,275,000
July-Dec 2009	23	3,959	$441.29	225	$6,095,000	$552,000	$1,500,000

(December 2009 sales are only through 27^th)

Sales really slowed down in 2008 and the first half of 2009. The last half of 2009 really picked up, though you’ll notice that times are market are even longer. If the prices were lower, you might attribute this to the tax rebate, but I doubt that it affects sales in these price points that much (though it doesn’t hurt). Perhaps the difference is in the willingness of sellers to ‘deal’. Over the last two years, there has been a steady decline in the percentage of asking price that a property sales for. In 2007, it was close to 98%. In late 2009, the average was 88%, with the highest priced homes having the largest discounts. This suggests to me that sellers were more willing to take the lower offers that buyers expected to be able to make. The long market times suggests that they may have done so reluctantly

In general, it appears that prices are steadying. In fact, the price/SF has come back up some, along with the number of sales. Prices are now down enough to be attractive and folks purchasing in this area are looking for the right home and right features more than just a low price (still expect some bargaining!).

I’d love to get your thoughts about the Medina market. Please email me or provide feedback on my blog or via Twitter (@PlumCrazyRE)