An article published in the Seattle PI this weekend commented that the Nationwide home prices have fallen far enough, when combined with current low mortgage interest rates, to get payments back in line with wages, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors said Friday in Bellevue.
"We believe that the home prices have already fallen to what could be justifiable," economist Lawrence Yun said, noting that mortgage payments for a typical household buying a typical house last year were back to 1998 levels, as a percentage of income.
With the economy being in a recession and the housing prices being subject to fall more, some people are waiting and some people are jumping off the fence. A couple of things that may encourage fence-sitters to purchase are the stimulus measure's $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit and a return to last year's higher limits on loans from $506,000 to $567,500 in the Seattle area.
So what does all this mean to us locally? According to a report done by the Talon Group, the median Seattle household income was $54,976 for 2008. The average household income was at $80,515. The average sales price for a single family residence in the city of Seattle was $560,920, which was down 3% from the 2007 average sales price of $579,977.
Different areas have different resale values, so please check out the Seattle Neighborhood Report (or any area you are interested in) for current resale data. Please contact our customer service department for demographics in your area as well.
