Snohomish County Real Estate Market Update | February 2021

Hey Y’all Zach McDonald, your real estate agent with Real Property Associates, and this is my Snohomish County Real Estate market update for February, 2021. And in this video we’re gonna look back at January’s stats and we’re gonna talk a little bit about the stats and the context and application for you coming up. If you wanna get more information about what’s going on in the Snohomish County market and also the surrounding areas, you’ll wanna make sure to subscribe to my channel so that you can see some of those other updates. As we dive into the Snohomish County market stats from last month, we’re gonna notice that a lot of things have picked up. Things are heating up, and this is a Hummish County real estate market. The new listings we saw actually a decline in new listings, which is going to be interesting as we head through these stats.

6.5% fewer listings on the market this past month than the same time last year. We also saw a slight decline in the pending sales year over year, mainly I’d think because there were fewer houses, but we saw more pending sales than we saw new listings. So we’ve seen the amount of homes shrink just slightly, and it’s not like there was much room for them to shrink <laugh>. it’s brought the supply numbers of homes on the market. So for perspective, last year there were over 800 houses for sale in Snohomish County and this year, same time we had 283 houses for sale. So we’ve seen a 66.4% decrease in homes for sale. And we have at this point 0.3 months of supply in all of Snohomish County, which is a little over a week of homes on the market. And that’s also a 66.7% decline in the amount of inventory and supply in the market.

So we’re starting to feel a squeeze in Snohomish County and even more, particularly in some of the most desirable areas. There are a few different results of the decreased inventory and the increased competition. The first thing is that prices are going up. So we’re seeing a substantial jump in housing prices. Check this out, 19.2% increase in the median sales price year over year. So from January, 2020 to January 8th, 2021 and a 16.3% jump in the average sales price from January, 2020 to January, 2021. So substantial increases even more so than King County. We talked about how King County is a hot market and one of the most expensive markets in all of the state of Washington. Snohomish County’s not far behind and we’re seeing those prices jump up at an even faster rate. We’re also seeing homes selling faster. So homes are selling in an average of 17 days down from 40 days in 2020.

So a 57.5% decrease in the days on market. And we’re also seeing houses sell above asking price. So houses are selling on average 3.2% above asking price, which is a substantial jump from last year when houses were selling below asking price. And so last year people were able to get a little bit of a deal on their house in 2020 this time of year. But we’re seeing houses going above asking price right now. And I suspect that until inventory and supply starts to pick up later this spring and early summer, that we’re probably gonna see this squeeze and see prices continuing to climb. And we might even see this number percentage above asking price continue to climb as well. Now let’s look a little closer at the condo specific stats in Snohomish County. As we look through these stats, we saw a 2.6% increase in new listings.

We saw an 8.9% increase in pending sales. Again, almost the same number of pending sales and new listings. So we’re seeing everything coming on the market going very quickly. The days on market dropped slightly, not nearly as substantially as the days on market. In the residential side of things, we saw a 9.4% decrease in the days on market and median sales price jump and average sales price jump a lot more modest. And that’s going to be the theme with condos versus the residential sales. The median sales price jumped 4.3% for condos and the average sales price jumped 3%. And that’s in comparison to a 19.2% increase and a 16.3% increase. So substantially different numbers, whether you’re investing in a condo versus a single family home. And people always ask me, well, which one’s a better investment? And sometimes you can only afford a condo or maybe you only want a condo.

But typically in historically over the long haul, the single family homes tend to appreciate at a faster rate than the condos. If you do own a condo though, and you’re looking to sell it here in 2021, you are in luck. The market’s also very hot per condos. We’re seeing about 0.3 months of supply in the condo market, which is substantially down from last year at the same time, and actually just as low of a number as the single family side. So there is still competition for the condos, not as much, but they’re still selling pretty quickly. And on average, actually selling above asking prices, well, 1.4% above asking price. So if you have a condo, you are most likely going to be able to sell that fairly quickly and for above your asking price. And if you’re a buyer looking at a condo, you are probably going to have to compete for it, but not quite as much as you would for the single family homes. Overall in Snohomish County,

The housing market is super hot. I think the increase in demand for people to be moving out of King County specifically, but out into the suburbs with a little bit more space is part of driving factor. Not the only one, but a major contributing factor. And the prices are also more affordable in general. So if you’re looking for a house, you might not be able to afford King County, but you might be able to afford Snohomish County. So I think that’s also another one of the driving factors. We’ve talked about low interest rates and things like that, and interest rates do remain low. If you’re looking to buy a house or sell a house in Snohomish County, I’d love to be a resource for you and have a conversation about how we can help you reach your goals.