King County home sales climb to '09 high in October

The impending expiration of the federal first-time homebuyers' tax credit — which now is set to be extended — pushed King County home sales to a new high in October.

Buyers closed on 1,758 houses last month, according to statistics released Thursday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. That's the largest number of sales this year, and is 33 percent higher than the number of sales recorded in October 2008.

October was the fifth straight month of year-over-year increases. Sales in Snohomish County last month were up a whopping 42 percent from a year ago.

Pending sales in both counties were up even more dramatically.

Brokers attributed the bump to the $8,000 tax credit. It "was the engine that started driving the market again," Meribeth Hutchings, broker/owner of Windermere Real Estate's Lake Stevens office, said in a prepared statement. "The first-time homebuyer creates a move-up buyer."

The credit was scheduled to expire Nov. 30, but both houses of Congress have voted to extend and expand it. President Obama is expected to sign the bill Friday.

The median price of single-family homes sold in King County in October was $377,500, down from $392,000 in October 2008. But the year-over-year decline — 3.7 percent — was the smallest in a year.

Snohomish County's median single-family home sale price was $292,725, down 12.3 percent from last October.

King County condo sales, which have lagged house sales, were up 18 percent in October from a year earlier. The median price, $251,000, was down 8.7 percent.

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