Seattle Home Sales Slow as Prices Rise

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Seattle region homes sold at the slowest pace in 15 years during May as bargain shoppers found a much lower supply of deeply discounted foreclosures than they would have in many other Western markets. Given the smaller impact from distressed homes, the region's price measures continued to hold up relatively well: The overall median sale price rose slightly from April and fell a relatively mild 11% below a year ago and 16% from the area's 2007 peak, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 3,142 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in May in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan statistical area encompassing King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Last month's sales rose 13.5% from April but dropped 21.7% from a year earlier, according to MDA DataQuick. The San Diego firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

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