Is The Seattle Real Estate Market Slowing Down?
The Seattle real estate market slows down every summer, but not typically this soon. Is this the end of bidding wars and fierce competition? I don’t think so.
[Video Transcript]
Hey y’all, Zach McDonald, your real estate agent here with real property associates and I’ll be producing and releasing my monthly market update tomorrow. But wanted to kind of head off some conversations I’ve been hearing about the real estate market here in the last week or so. And even over the last few months, I’ve heard some buzz around the office and from other real estate agents that inventory is up a little bit. And there are homes that are not selling in their first seven days. There are homes that are having an offer review date and the homes are going past that. And there’s, I don’t know if it’s a concern. But I heard similar things back in 2016 when there was a little bit of a slowdown, late summer early fall.
And I think the concerns are that, hey it’s still prime time. It’s still the beginning of summer. But I think the real estate market rather than something to be concerned with, it’s a healthy adjustment. We’re seeing a little bit more inventory and really what we’re talking about is 100 houses in the last month that came on the market extra than the year before. And we’ve seen homes not go as quickly, which is also okay. The actual median days on market is still almost identical. We’re talking seven, eight days. But what’s happening is we’re having buyers, I think, these are my opinions here now. I think buyers being a little bit more selective. And you’re seeing homes take 17 to 20 days to sell in some cases. But the good ones are still going really quick and that’s why we still have those median numbers the way they are.
And the buyers that I’m working with right now don’t feel that same sense of urgency where they have to buy something or they’re never going to be able to buy something. And I think there was that sentiment for a few years, where man if I don’t get in now, I’m never going to get in. I’m never going to have a shot at it. But I think what we’re seeing is some buyers that have been through this a little bit, have maybe lost out on some offers and realized, you know what? It’s okay to wait around for a house I like. I don’t have to offer on every single house that it might, maybe be a possibility. But people are just being a little bit more picky and selective.
So I think that’s why you’re seeing some of those houses on a busy road that are overpriced. The other thing about this last few months is we’ve seen the highest price per square foot numbers ever. So yeah we’ve seen a little bit of what you maybe would call a slow down in the market. Homes aren’t selling as quickly but we’re still seeing homes sell for just as much if not more than they ever have. And so we have homes selling at their peak prices, buyers being a little more selective and I think that sellers and agents too are a little bit cocky. And maybe this is a good opportunity to kind of reflect on, okay how are we pricing homes? How are we marketing homes? Are we going to get multiple offers at whatever price we listed that? Or do we need to find the right price? Do we need to change our strategy? So I think there’s some reflection needs to happen in the real estate community as well.
But I wouldn’t be worried, I’m not worried about the Seattle real estate market and heck, if we have a month and a half to two months to supply it, it’s still a seller’s market. We’re still going to see multiple offers on occasion, but it’s not going to be the norm. I’d be curious though. I think the next few months, just like every other summer that I’ve been a real estate agent, we’re going to see a little bit of a slow down. And I talked about this last few months. We’re going to see inventory pick up a little bit. People that have been struggling to get into a house, get into a house. And then once the early winter and early spring hit, we’re going to be starting to see the market shoot up again.
So time is going to tell. This is I guess maybe stepping out on a limb. I don’t feel like that, but maybe I am. But I wouldn’t be worried about the real estate market and I certainly am not myself.
