A listed property in downtown Centralia. Viewings are available by appointment only during the coronavirus outbreak.
The numbers on residential real estate provided by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service statewide for March don’t immediately signal cause for concern. That’s likely to change, however, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
According to state brokers, numbers are expected to take a hit once figures from April and May become available. While a state of emergency was declared in Washington state on Feb. 29, Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” proclamation didn’t take effect until March 25.
NMLS temporarily disabled open houses on March 17, in conjunction with Gov. Inslee’s limit on public gatherings. Brokers were then told to have “limited personal interactions to show properties when necessary were permitted by appointment only with no more than two people, including the broker,” according to a release, after modifications were made to the governor’s proclamation on March 28.
“The local real estate market experienced a bit of turbulence in late March as the coronavirus crisis evolved,” J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate said in an NMLS release. “Following statewide orders, the market virtually paused for a few days, but began picking up after real estate guidelines were adjusted to support social distancing,”
In Lewis County, total active residential listings in March were up by 10 percent from a year ago, jumping from 200 to 220. Closed residential sales also climbed from 84 in March 2019 to 97 in March 2020, a bump of 15.5 percent.
Closed residential sales in Thurston County saw a smaller increase. 355 sales were closed in March 2020 as opposed to the 348 in March 2019, with a 9.05 percent change in median price, nonetheless. Total active residential listings dropped by 29 percent, however, with just 318 total active listings in March 2020 versus 448 in March 2019.
In February, Lewis County-based broker Len Noble of Windermere in Centralia spoke about the then-current state of the county’s real estate market. The outlook was significantly more positive.
“Supply is horrible, I’ve got people that I’ve been hunting and hunting and hunting (for) and as soon as (a listing) goes on, they watch it. I mean, it’s only on a day or so,” Noble said on Feb. 12. “This is the time of year people are putting on the houses or buying, right now. The end of February, March, April, are really the best.”
In the midst of a global pandemic, though, the expectation is that April and May’s numbers will reflect all of the measures taken to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“We expect that all numbers will decline in April and May as a direct result of the governor’s ‘Stay Home’ order that became effective on March 26,” Mike Grady, president and COO at Coldwell Banker Bain said in an NMLS release.
Additionally, that short turnaround time that Noble spoke of in February no longer exists.
Dick Beeson, a managing broker at RE/MAX Northwest Realtors in Gig Harbor, told NMLS the entire Northwest real estate market is “wrinkled.”
That wrinkle has produced fewer pending sales and fewer homes coming on the market, and that means buyers are taking more time to make decisions in this new environment,” Beeson said in the release. “It also means sellers, for the first time in a long time, don’t have instantaneous offers and must exercise patience, too. Like Interstate 5, if there’s an accident ahead, you creep along as you pass by it. The market is not totally stopped, but around half the business is on hold. And we’re creeping along right now.”
