Seattle Real Estate Market Update | May 2018

Here are my latest thoughts on the Seattle Real Estate Market:

Buyers hoping to purchase with lower interest rates and sellers looking to capitalize on buyer demand and record-high prices will continue to propel the Seattle area real estate market upward.

 

[Video transcript of May 2018 Seattle Real Estate Market Update]

Hey, I’m Zach McDonald, your real estate agent here with Real Property Associates and this is my May 2018 Seattle Real Estate Market update. I’m going to start off this month’s update just like I start off every other update. I’m going to start them off with a quick story.

This story is a little bit more personal in nature because well, it involves my family. So last year about this time, my wife and I purchased our first house in the Seattle area. We met the sellers by door knocking and handing out letters. So in this particular case, the sellers responded to one of the letters that we dropped off on their doorstep and we were able to work out a deal to purchase their home.

Now, after the purchase they decided to sell one of their investment properties with me and subsequently the last, about two months ago now, they introduced me to family members who were looking to sell their house in [Lynnwood 00:01:06] and we just closed on that sale. So kind of a fun, feel-good story at least from my perspective going from door knocking on their house to meet them to helping their family members sell their house as well.

Now the stats, I know this is your favorite part, actually I hope the stories are your favorite part, but the stats, I’m going to start off with just a quick conversation about the interest rates, that’s what we’re going to talk about. Interest rates are going up, they’re getting closer to 5% here. Last months averages were creeping up towards that 5% mark and just as a quick, quick caveat, interest rates are still really low, like according to traditional historical interest rates but they’ve been trending up and it looks like they will continue to do that and that’s what the lenders I trust are seeing and predicting as well, thinking we might even see mid-5’s even up to 6 again here, not, not in the not too distant future.

So something to keep an eye on. The stat that I think all of you homeowners care more about is, what’s my home worth? How much more is my house worth? So we’ll talk about median sales price here as our stat of the month for residential, I’m going to peek at my notes, just so I make sure that I get this right, but I know in Seattle we are 800,000. According to the MLS data and that’s up over 14% from the same time last year. In Shoreline we were at 654 median sales price, up about 15.5% on the median sales price. [Edmunds 00:02:47] in its entirety up about 10%, just under that in Lynnwood from the same time last year, up about 20%.

Now, let’s look at, I think the monthly numbers are a little deceiving so I’ll give you the 12 month kind of rolling data point. So over the last 12 months, on average, the median sales price in Seattle was up 16.3%, crazy. Shoreline, 18.6%, Edmonds, 15.5%, and Lynnwood, 15.1%.

So over the last 12 months, the average median sales price increase has been quite significant and if we look at condos, for the same stat, that rolling 12-month number, the numbers here are kind of ridiculous. So Seattle’s is about the same, actually a little less, 12.5%. Shoreline, we’re up almost 25% on the condo sales price. Now that’s a 12-month average increase. Edmond’s we’re up 32.2%, and Lynnwood, guys, 40% increase in the price, the median sales price of condos in Lynnwood over the last 12 months average together.

That’s actually kind of ridiculous and I think part of that is because people are getting priced out of single-family homes and now they’re settling for a condo, and that’s just quickly driving the condo prices up too. That’s my guess there.

So as far as an application, to wrap this video up, buyer’s, … you’re getting pulled in a couple directions, home prices are continuing to rise, and interest rates are continuing to rise which means your buying power is disintegrating pretty quickly. If your home prices are going up and your interest rates are going down, that means you can’t afford the same amount of house that you could afford last month and it’s doubly bad because your rates are going up which also decreases your buying power.

So not only are the prices going up, but your ability to purchase is also going up or going down. Waiting isn’t necessarily going to help you as I was just talking about because the interest rates are projected to keep going up and have been going up, which just means the problem gets worse. What it’s created is a frenzy for the buyers which already was there but, just because of the shortness of inventory, but there’s a little bit of a frenzy to get a house now before those interest rates go up.

So we’re kind of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy if you want to look at it that way. Seller’s I don’t think the increased interest rates is going to negatively affect you for a little bit, but, and I don’t know if it will negatively affect you but it might slow down the market a little bit. Again, people have been projecting that for the last few years and well, we haven’t really seen that. So it will be interesting to watch. I’m a little bullish on it. The interest rates going up and inventory remaining low, I think we’re still going to see home prices keep going up, but something to keep an eye on, definitely, for sure.

So thank you for watching. I say this every month, but I really value your attention. Thank you for tuning in and if you’ve found value in this content, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe, or give it a like if you’re on Facebook. I’d really appreciate that and if you need anything, if you’re looking to buy a house, or maybe you know somebody who’s looking to make a move, buying or selling, I’d love to be a resource and help in any way that I can.

So again, thanks so much for tuning in and we’ll talk to you next month, bye for now.