Median Price for Sammamish-area Houses Slides to $475,000 in May With About 15% of Listings Sold

Sammamish-area houses saw a decline in the median sales price last month, ending at $475,000 or a 5 percent drop from the year-ago period, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Monday.

The median price for single-family homes in the Sammamish area - which includes North Bend, Snoqualmie and parts of King County - in May 2010 was $500,000. The Northwest Multiple Listing Service noted again that the first five months of 2010 also had a federal tax credit in play, which was $8,000 for first-time buyers. 

The $475,000 median price for closed home sales also was a drop from $485,000 in April. The $475,000 median price also is the lowest amount so far this year, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service data.

The median sales price means that 50 percent are higher and 50 percent are lower. The median sales price is not the average sales price.

While real estate agents have talked about specific neighborhoods having different trends than a geographic sector designated by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, there was talk on Monday about sellers finding the right asking price for a house.

"Homes that are priced aggressively are seeing a lot of competition and we're even getting reports of some homes selling before buyers can act," Windermere Real Estate President OB Jacobi said in a statement.

The month of May saw 111 closed single-family house sales and 752 active listings in the Sammamish area. The year-ago period had 131 closed sales and 705 active listings.

The percentage for the median sales price drop in the Sammamish area was slightly higher than the more than 4 percent decrease for Eastside houses, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported.

Single-family homes on the Eastside had a median closing price of $493,990 in May, compared with $515,000 for the same month last year. The Eastside had 547 closed sales and 2,721 active listings last month.

But the 5 percent drop was lower than the nearly 9 percent decline in the closed median sales price for all houses in King County. The median sales price for May 2011 in King County was $345,000, down from $379,000 the same month in 2010.