Nationally, existing home sales fell by 8.6 percent in November, says the P-I. Troublingly, "sales of distressed properties made up 45 percent of all property sales in November." But here's the kicker for local home shoppers and sellers: "Sales of existing homes in the Seattle area were down nearly 37 percent in November from October and 45 percent from November 2007." Seattle Bubble reports that in King County, the existing inventory of homes on the market, selling at the current rate, would take nine months to work through. They also have a cool graphic that breaks the inventory down for you. more ›

We're stealing this real estate post almost directly from CHS, who discovered Redfin's cool graphs before we did. But we'll refine the focus to condos to avoid outright plagiarism. Redfin's numbers show that since October '06, the number of Capitol Hill condos on the market has ballooned from just over 100 to just under 250 currently. Meanwhile, the average list price has hovered around $475/sq. ft., while actual sales price has declined significantly since last April, from over $475/sq. ft. to about $435/sq. ft. (For reference, on a 400 sq. ft. condo, that's a price drop of $16,000.) Economists will not be surprised that the peak in inventory corresponds very nicely with the subsequent drop in sales price. more ›