Seattle Times Article: 5/14/08

Slide in existing-home sales in state steepest in Central Puget Sound area

By Elizabeth RhodesSeattle Times business reporter

"Washington's home sales are down, and the dip is more pronounced in the Central Puget Sound region, which has the lion's share of the state's housing transactions.

Compared with the same period a year ago, sales of existing homes were off more than a third in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, the Washington Center for Real Estate Research reported Tuesday. The research does not include new homes.

The trend was generally repeated in prices, with the median price of resale homes dropping more in Central Puget Sound - except for King County - than in the state as a whole, the research center at Washington State University, found.

In the first three months of this year, existing home sales dropped 31.8 percent in King County, 35.6 percent in Pierce, and 34.8 percent in Snohomish County, compared with a year earlier. The statewide average was 29.7 percent."

Click below for entire article and information and Chelan and Douglas counties.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004412172_realestate14.html