SEATTLE — The median price for a single-family home in Seattle has surpassed the half-million-dollar mark for the first time, according to the latest figures from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
Half the houses sold in the city in August went for more than $501,000 and half for less, up about 10 percent from last year’s median single-family home price of $455,000, the listing service reported Monday.
Factoring in condominiums, Seattle’s median home price rose to $439,000 in August, up 8.4 percent from last year. Prices rose nearly 6 percent in King County and less than 3 percent across Western Washington. Nationally, housing prices fell 3.2 percent between April in June.
Despite the rising prices in Seattle, buyers showed signs of growing caution amid the downturn in the national housing economy.
Closed sales in Seattle slipped nearly 11 percent from August 2006, the first yearly drop since February and the largest since October. Those sales declined 17 percent across the 19 Washington counties the listing service tracks.
“There are a lot of first-time buyers who are holding onto the belief that the market’s going to change, so they shouldn’t buy,” Windermere Real Estate agent Jim Patterson said.
The number of homes on the market continued to grow, partly because it’s getting harder for some prospective buyers to borrow money.
Lenders have been tightening standards in hopes of stemming the rise of delinquencies and foreclosures that has been rocking the market for sub-prime mortgage loans – those for buyers with shaky credit histories.
“The challenges that we’re seeing in the subprime market have made it more difficult for entry-level buyers,” said Erik Hand, president of Response Mortgage Services, John L. Scott Real Estate’s in-house mortgage lender.
Despite the national price declines, most real estate experts predict Seattle-area prices will continue rising moderately.
