A friend asked "Is Inventory in Snohomish/Everett (Cathcart Area) down compared to this summer?"

For those of you who haven't discovered the time-consuming, all-addictive social network called Facebook (www.facebook.com) I can tell you that I have. But through it I have gained connections to old friends and made great connections with new ones. And although I do enjoy the social aspect to this forum, I also enjoy my ability to share my successes in Real Estate with those to whom am connected - I believe my positive attitude and consistent contact with my clients and friends has helped me thrive through what has been a slower than past market.

Recently, an friend posed a question to me on facebook, outside of the typical "Hey there - How are you?"

Tanya G. asked me -
"Hey Stacey, I was curious to know why on Windermere there is suddenly so much less inventory of houses in our area? It seemed like this summer there was so much. Are people just not putting stuff on the market or is it selling quickly in our neck of the woods? Hope you are well and getting a ton of business :-)"

The first point I can make is when she refers to "Windermere", she is commenting on the Windermere's website (http://www.windermere.com/), where an individual can search through all homes listed on the NWMLS whether they be listed with a Windermere Agent or another real estate agency. Additionally, the area she references by "Our Area" is the Everett/Snohomish Area located just off Cathcart Way near Hwy 9 and Seattle Hill Road -- and what a Real Estate Agent would classify as area 740.

So with all of that said I prepared a graph to show the trends of inventory of homes, pending sales and sold homes for that specific area, narrowed down by the price range and square footage size found in that area $300,000 - $699,999.

So as you can see Tanya, inventory is down from the summer, but pending sales comparatively are much higher. Typically, you do see homeowners who have been trying to sell their homes take them off the market during what they believe is a "bad time" to sell (from November through December) -- however, I disagree with this thought process since homes do sell during these times and the buyers that are looking to buy are SERIOUS buyers, not just "lookey-loos" -- they usually need a home and have less inventory to view during these months, so why not let yours be one that they look at? Additionally, when those buyers who have taken their homes off the market put them back on in January, you suddenly see a HUGE rise in inventory.