the
Home Connection
Volume 13 | Issue 4
APRIL 2022
eye on the market ‘April showers bring May flowers’, and a little relief to the housing market. This past month saw improving inventory and a slowing pace of home price increases that helped ease some of the competitive pressures homebuyers have faced. In fact, Northwest MLS data showed a 6.8 percent increase in new listings from the same time a year ago, and a gain of more than 33 percent from last month’s total inventory. Brokers believe this may be an indicator that more sellers are ready to sell their homes and combined with inflation, rising interest rates, and new financing options, has caused more sellers to enter the market as well. However, despite the inventory influx, price trends for homes have continued to drift upward. Data from the MLS gives a closer look at the closed sale price escalations for specific counties, compared with the
experience this! same month a year ago. In King County prices are up by 14.37 percent, in Snohomish County up by 19.49 percent, in Pierce County up by almost 15.8 percent, in Thurston County up by almost 18.47 percent, and in Spokane County up by nearly 23.1 percent (Spokane Association of REALTORS). In addition to adding inventory to the market, sellers are also fueling some of the demand. Most home sellers are becoming home buyers and with more houses on the market to move into, brokers have seen month-over-month gains in pending sales. Will these trends continue into the peak of the spring market? In the upcoming months it will be interesting to see if home purchasing habits will be affected by the increasing mortgage rates, gasoline prices, and other worldly tensions that in the past have influenced buying decisions.
Celebrating Earth Day
Skagit Valley Tulip Festival 4/1- 4/ 30
Hope Chest 4/10
Kenmore Ball Crawl 4/2
Grape Escape 4/20
Seattle Restaurant Week 4/3 - 4/16
Downtown Forward 4/21
Spokane Speed & Custom Show 4/9
Secondhand Safari 4/23
Daffodil Parade 4/9
Bourbon & Bacon Bash 4/30
Earth Day is a great time to reflect on how we can better help our planet, and helping the Earth doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are a few things we can do each day to reduce our carbon footprint.
• Walk or bike instead of driving when
you can. Reduce your footprint on the Earth by leaving your car at home whenever possible. With less cars on the road, there are fewer carbon emissions.
• Recycle your e-waste.
More than 50 million tons of electronic waste are generated each year in the U.S. alone, and only 20 to 25 percent of the waste is responsibly recycled. As
a direct consequence, large amounts of hazardous materials such as lead, mercury and cadmium leach into our air and water, contaminating our communities. Go to e-stewards.org to find a facility that will help you recycle your e-waste in a safe and responsible manner.
• Reduce junk mail. One hundred
million trees are cut down each year to produce junk mail, and the resulting loss of trees takes a huge toll on Earth. continued on next page