SPOKANE, Wash. — While the housing market tailed off across the state in the third quarter, prices continued to climb, with the median price topping $300,000, the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at Washington State University reported Tuesday. Director Glenn Crellin said median home prices continued to hit record highs even as the number of homes sold fell.
“While sales rates are no longer setting records, the overall housing market in Washington remains strong,” Crellin said in a news release. Rising inventories mean buyers have more choices and more room to negotiate, but there is not a glut of houses on the market, Crellin said. In the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 43,050 homes were sold across the state, 16 percent fewer than a year ago, the report said.
Statewide, the median sale price of a home in the third quarter was $300,900, an increase of 14.9 percent from the median recorded in the third quarter of 2005. Among the urban areas, King County’s median was $432,600, up 16.3 percent from a year ago.
The Housing Affordability Index, which measures the ability of a middle income family to buy a median price home, slipped by 2.8 points in the third quarter to 85.1. That means a typical family has only 85 percent of the income required for the purchase of a median price home using a 30-year mortgage at prevailing interest rates. Buyers in 15 counties faced index values below 100, moving two more communities into the less-affordable category compared to three months ago.
