Almost no change in home prices

Prices of homes for sale in King County barely moved last month, a residential real estate industry group reported.

The median price for April’s closed sales of single-family homes and condominiums was $410,000. That was an increase of less than 1 percent (0.67) from 12 months ago and only $5,000 below the price reported for August 2007, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NMLS).

The median price is one in which half the overall prices are higher and half are lower.

NMLS said that in the four-county Puget Sound region, prices have shown little fluctuation since last August, when they started slipping during the subprime mortgage meltdown.

In the 19 counties where NMLS monitors housing markets, pending sales during April reached their highest level in eight months.

NMLS said brokers reported 6,208 pending sales (offers made and accepted, but not yet closed) last month. That was the highest number of transactions during one month since last August, when brokers reported 7,751 pending sales of single-family homes and condominiums. Compared to the same month a year ago, pending sales were down about 32 percent, according to NMLS.

Other indicators were mixed. Prices for sales that closed during April were down about 5.5 percent compared to a year ago, but prices were in many areas, NMLS said.

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