Real estate values in the Puget sound

Everyone wants to know how much their home is worth currently, but few people are prepared to hear that their home is worth less than they think. Most people think they are somehow immune from the nationwide real estate collapse. When most homeowners have an appraisal done to re-finance their home and the value comes in at much lower than they were hoping, they first challenge the appraisal for value and then usually try to attack the appraiser saying they did not do the proper job. In all cases so far the homeowners have no actual sales data to back up their claims of a higher value.

We in the puget sound are luckier than most when it comes to real estate values. This are had big run-ups in value during the 1990's and all the way up to the summer of 2007. It appears from the research that I have done that most home values in the area have dropped to about 2005 levels. In most cases this means that the value of the average home here has dropped by approximately 20 to 30 percent from the 2007 summer highs.

It should be noted that the reports you hear on the news about real estate values are from Realtor statistics for their own sales and do not take into account any private sales that did not use a realtor or foreclosures and forced sales or some short sales. This means that any talk of values on the news is not including a large number of transactions that do have a dramatic effect on the values of homes in different markets and even neighborhood to neighborhood within those markets.

It does appear that, in most neighborhoods in the greater Seattle area at least, that the values of most homes and neighborhoods have quit dropping and some , most within the city limits, have actually strengthened a little bit from their lows. Sales of homes are still slow and employment is also still slow which will put a damper on any short term future appreciation for homes. But at least they have quit dropping in value for the most part.