One-third of home sellers in March lost money

Sellers lost money on one-third of homes sold in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties in March, according to online real-estate marketplace and database Zillow.

That's a big jump from the same month last year, when 22 percent of homes in the Seattle metropolitan area sold for a loss, the Seattle-based company said.

The region still trails the nation as a whole in this measure of misery: nationwide, more than 37 percent of all homes sold in March went for less than the sellers paid for them, according to Zillow.

But Seattle is catching up: Its 10 percentage-point year-over-year increase compared with a 6.5 percentage-point bump nationwide.

That's because home values here declined more rapidly during the year, said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist.

The firm calculates the median value of all houses and condos in the three counties — not just those that have sold — was $259,200 in March, down 11.7 percent from March 2010.

Nationally, the decline was 8.2 percent.

Other researchers who track sales also have documented bigger drops in the Seattle metropolitan area in recent months than in the nation as a whole.

But Humphries said that's because Seattle entered the housing recession later than most other markets. "We're at a different point in our cycle," he said.

Snohomish County had the largest share of homes sold for a loss in March, according to Zillow: 44 percent, compared with less than 28 percent in King County and more than 32 percent in Pierce County.

Sellers in the city of Seattle lost money on exactly one-quarter of homes sold in March.

Communities on the fringes of the urban area had some of the highest percentages: 54 percent in both Snoqualmie and Marysville, 49 percent in Puyallup's South Hill area.

Nearly 39 percent of condos in the three counties sold for a loss in March, Zillow said, compared with 30 percent of single-family homes.

The company gleaned the information from public records.

If there's any good news for the Seattle area in Zillow's most recent research, Humphries said, it's that home values now are declining slower here than in the nation as a whole.

The median value in this region fell 1.7 percent in this region between December and March, according to Zillow, compared with a 3 percent drop nationwide.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com