Clark County Housing

  This chart chows the number of employed people living in Clark County as reported by the Washington Labor Department.

Home Prices are still climbing by all measures   New home prices have cooled off a bit.  Existing home prices are catching back up. New home construction is up a bit, but still very low.   Affordability is dropping rapidly. Home price to income ratio never fully reverted to average and is spiking.

Buy now! Buy now! Buy now! Anybody remember 2005? Home prices were going up so fast you had to offer 10% over asking price and submit a photo of your family dog just to get the attention of the buyer. Seem like a long long time ago? Those times may be back.   Even in Clark County.   Prices are up 21.6% so far this year, from $188,700 in January to $222,500 in May.   Inventory is down 19% to a total of 2710 listings, from 3321 listings in May 2011. I hear stories of homes selling for tens of thousands of dollars over asking price in just a few days. What does this mean?  Why is nobody selling?  Will it last?  Where are all the bank owned homes supposedly stuck in the pipeline? Location, Location, Location. At least for now it appears that the crazy price wars are limited to the most desirable neighborhoods.   And what about the price/per foot of home sales?  That appears to...

I would hate to jinx anything, but it almost looks like Phoenix may be stabilizing and maybe, just maybe, may have found the bottom.  Portland and San Diego may have a ways to go.