Seattle Real Estate Has It Improved?

Has the Seattle real estate market improved?  Seattle is part of the NWMLS.  While pending sales across the NWMLS are still down 9% from last January, the market has shown resilience to begin 2023.  For example, pending sales in January are up 44% over December.  In addition, prices in January are up 0.41% when compared with last January. 

The improved market seems to correlate with the recent interest rate drop.  Interest rates peaked in November with a Freddie Mac U.S. weekly average of over 7%.  Last week, that number was 6.09%.

Inventory is up from the historically low numbers from a year ago.  This January ended with 8,220 active listings versus 3.092 a year ago.  Nevertheless, across the NWMLS inventory is only 2.52 months which is still a sellers’ market.  Four to six months is an even market.  While there are a few counties with over 6 months of inventory (buyer’s market), the larger counties still have low inventory.  For instance, King (2.26 mo), Snohomish (1.71 mo), and Pierce (2.13 mo) combine to have over half of the NWMLS active listings; yet, all have less than the average NWMLS market time.  

More specifically, Seattle had less home sales (448 vs 291) along with a higher median ($780,000 vs $802,000) and average price ($932,000 vs $933,000) when comparing January 2023 with the previous year.  The highest Seattle home sale in January 2023 was a Magnolia home built in 2019 that sold for $3.300 million.  The highest sale in January 2022, was an unlisted Seattle waterfront property sold by Ewing and Clark.  It sold for $8.250 million.

CONDO MARKET

The NWMLS condo market saw a price decrease of 2.5% from the previous January.  Only four counties saw an increase over the previous January (Skagit, Pacific, Kitsap, and Thurston).  Thus prices in King County, like every other county, saw a decrease.  For instance, Seattle condo average price decreased from $583,000 to $565,000 while median prices decreased from $500,000 to $485,000.  Similar to home sales, Seattle condo transactions decreased significantly (212 vs 89). 

FUTURE MARKET?

The future of the Seattle real estate market is hard to predict.  Every real estate market brings new challenges.  To navigate the current issues, contact one of Ewing and Clark’s real estate brokers. Ewing and Clark has provided exceptional real estate service to Greater Seattle since 1900.