Last week I did two appraisals that showed different aspects of the currently distressed market.

One house is a 1,700 square foot, one story house built in the mid 1990′s.  It is about three miles north east of downtown Vancouver.  It was listed for $260,000.  It received an offer for $250,000.  The offer was accepted.

In the last three months there had not been a house listed by the MLS, similar to the subject and near the subject that had sold for more than $210,000 .

Reviewing the MLS statistics I found that in the February to May 2008 time frame, the average sales price of houses similar to the subject property and near it was about $255,000.  In the May to August time frame the average sale price dropped to about $235,000, or about a 7.5% decrease.  In the August to November time frame the average sale price dropped to about $228,000.  This was about a 3.5% drop.  From the November 2008 to February 2009 time frame the average sales price of houses near and similar to the subject dropped over 19%.

By comparison, I did an appraisal of a larger, two story house, built in the mid 1990′s in Felida.  Filida is about 10 miles north of Vancouver near Salmon Creek.  Looking at the MLS statistics for that product type and location, and following the same time sequence as the property noted above, I found about a 9% drop, then a 6% increase, then a 5.5% increase.  So, over the last year the market moved down and up and generally remained about the same.  I mean to say, it showed no significant value loss over the year.

The whole market has fallen in the last year.  Values and prices are down.  The Bank Owned houses are sold at a discount and on an “as is” basis.  There are lots of Bank Owned houses on the market.  This drags the whole market down.

But, some product types in certain locations are not suffering as much.

Ralph K. Olsen, IFA

Pacific West Appraisal Services, Inc.

pwas.net