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» Washington rank: 23 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate February 2013 3.4% Unemployment Rate 2.8% 7.5% year ago 5.1% 1.7% 8.4% year-over-year change -34.1% 60.8% -10.7% Top County 90+ Day Delinquency Rate PierCe CounTy Foreclosure Rate February 2013 5.1% 4.1% year ago 7.5% 2.4% year-over-year change -32.2% 67.3% Top Core-Based Statistical Area ShelTon, WA 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate February 2013 3.9% 4.0% year ago 5.9% 2.3% year-over-year change -34.3% 72.0% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the February 2013 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary February 2013 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Applied Analytics. Washington Marliss Gruver The Marliss Gruver Group RE/MAX Four Seasons 24 Hour Occupancy Checks, Cash for Keys, Property Preservation, Maintenance and Repairs, BPO's, Full Marketing Campaigns ABR, GRI, CRS, CDPE Direct: 360.790.6900 Office: 360.357.3336 marliss@marlissgruver.com 2010 #2 WA RE/MAX Agent, (closed transactions) 2011 #3 WA RE/MAX Agent, (closed transactions) IN THE NEWS Lifecycle of a Listing = 2 Weeks with Current Demand More than one-third of listed homes were taken off the market in two weeks or less in February, according to the Seattlebased real estate brokerage Redfin. On average, the company found 34 percent of homes were under contract within 14 days of their debut, up from 30.3 percent in January with a marketing window of no more than two weeks. Redfin's analysis is based on local databases used directly by real estate agents to list properties and record sales. Redfin reported a handful of metros, especially in California, saw an even greater share of homes sold within two weeks. In San Jose, 63.1 percent of listings were snatched up in two weeks or less. Other California metros with short-lived listing times for a high percentage of homes were San Francisco (56.8 percent), Ventura (52.6 percent), Los Angeles (51.3 percent), and Inland Empire (49.8 percent). Redfin also reported a continued decline in housing inventory, which fell 32 percent from February 2012 to February 2013 across the 19 metro markets analyzed by Redfin, though overall inventory did inch up 1.1 percent from January 2013. As inventory remained low, home prices ended the month of February with a 13.2 percent annual gain and an increase of 2.4 percent month-over-month. February's sales numbers, constrained by a lack of inventory, were up just 2.3 percent from a year earlier and up 0.7 percent from the previous month, Redfin reported. Agents' outlooks are shifting as the market swings further and further in favor of sellers, Redfin noted. Redfin polled 650 agents either employed by or partnering with the company. Respondents spanned 21 metro markets across the country. According to brokerage's findings, the number of agents saying now is a good time to buy plummeted from 75 percent in Q 3 2012 to 57 percent in Q1 2013. At the same time, the number of agents saying now is a bad time to buy rose slightly, though the percentage is still low—5 percent in Q1 2013 compared to 2 percent in Q 3 2012. On the other hand, 82 percent of agents believe now is a good time to sell, a spike from 54 percent in the company's thirdquarter survey last year. Contributing to that shift is the increased perception that sellers are gaining confidence in the market. According to Redfin, 98 percent of agents surveyed agreed that sellers are becoming more confident, while 83 percent agreed buyers are more confident. Nearly one-quarter of respondents—24 percent—said sellers face "no major challenges" today. "The third quarter's biggest challenge for sellers—unrealistic expectations—fell from 53 percent to just 35 percent this quarter," Redfin analyst Tim Ellis wrote in a blog post. "With home prices rising in most every VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM market, what was unrealistic last year has become completely reasonable this year." Agents also expressed greater confidence as far as home prices are concerned. Ninetyseven percent of respondents believe prices will rise in the coming months, compared to 87 percent in the last survey. The number of those predicting prices will "rise a lot" quadrupled to 44 percent, while the number of agents expecting prices to either decline or stay the same fell from 12 percent to 3 percent. On the other side of the equation, agents reported multiple challenges keeping prospective buyers away from their dream homes. "Low inventory" and "multiple offers" were the most commonly cited challenges, each one receiving mention from 96 percent of respondents. In addition, 39 percent of agents pointed to "rising prices" as a concern, more than double the percentage who said the same in the third quarter of last year. Perhaps most promising was the rise in optimism concerning the real estate profession itself. Seventy-four percent of agents believe the industry will grow in size in the next five years, up from 59 percent six months earlier. The share of respondents saying the profession will downsize halved from the last survey, dropping to 6 percent. "Agent attitudes have flipped from cautious optimism late last year to amazement at the suddenly hot market in most parts of the country—and we haven't even arrived at the typically busy spring season yet," Ellis wrote. Zillow Reports TopTier Homes Lead Inventory Crunch Inventory shortage continues to darken the skies over the housing market as the spring selling season approaches. Zillow observed a 16.6 percent year-over-year decline in its overall number of listed homes in late February, indicating an inventory crunch just as buyers start to feel more comfortable dipping their toes into the market. The Seattle-based company says the greatest year-over-year inventory declines were among more expensive homes, with the availability of top-tier properties falling 20.5 percent on an annual basis. That was followed by middle-tier homes (which saw a 17.2 percent inventory reduction) and bottom tier homes (down 9.1 percent). Only five metro areas posted higher inventory in February 2013 than in February 109

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