Statewide housing market strong in second quarter of 2016

Washington state's housing market remained strong in the second quarter of 2016. Home sale prices and the number of sales were up, although new building permits were down compared with a year ago, according to the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Washington. The statewide median sales price for a single family home rose to $317,500 in the second quarter of 2016, 11 percent higher than the second quarter of 2015, breaching the all-time high of $316,700 set in the second quarter of 2007. Similarly, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of existing home sales rose 3.4 percent from the second quarter of 2015 - to 109,359. This means that if the quarter's pace continued unchanged for a year, that number of homes would be sold. Although robust, the current annual rate of sales is well below the high in 2003. Home sales rose in 28 of the state's 39 counties in the second quarter of 2016.