Snohomish County Real Estate Market Update | June 2023

Hey y’all, Zach McDonald, your real estate agent with Real Property Associates, and this is my Snohomish County real Estate market update for June, 2023.

What’s up, Snohomish County? This is the third month in a row. We’ve seen prices going up in Snohomish County and looking back at the end of January, up through May. Right? We have seen an almost 10% increase in the median sales price across Snohomish County. Wow. Now, in the news last year, in the summer, the fall, even the winter, we were talking about how the Seattle area, right, had seen some of the largest drop-offs in sales prices, home values lost, people were freaking out, right? And across the country, everybody’s been feeling it in different ways. But in the higher price markets that are maybe a little more interest rate sensitive just because of the price points, well, we’re feeling it even more, but we’re seeing a very quick bounce back, and we’re still down year over year, and we’ll look at that here right now.

But we’re seeing things picking back up and we’ve been talking about, that was something we talked about in the predictions video at the beginning of the year. One of the predictions was that we might see home prices actually higher than they were at the same time, at the end of the year, year over year, not right now because they were so high, but at the end of the year, we might see positive year over year numbers. I know that sounds shocking, but you’re hearing it again, I think we’re heading in that direction right now. Now let’s look at median sales price in Snohomish County, 775,000, which last month we were at 7 49, and at the beginning of the year, 7 0 5. So we’ve been seeing the numbers jumping. That’s only a 4.9% decline year over year. It is not 20%, not 25%, it’s 4.9% across Snohomish County for residential homes.

Average sales price is also up again for the third month in a row, 8 29, 9 13, but down 7.4% from last year. So, you know, average median, there are different ways to look at. Look at value medians. Middle number average is all the numbers together, right? Um, so you have the higher, higher priced, um, areas, um, pulling, I think pulling up those lower-priced areas a little bit more. But it’s interesting because you don’t have that substantial drop anymore. And we’re starting to see houses selling over asking price 1.3% above asking price. We’re seeing that the amount of homes available in Snohomish County is actually down. Whoa, wait, what? Last year there were 1,107 houses across Na, Hummish County for sale, single-family residential homes this year, 670 right now, which is a 39.5% drop off, or 437 houses. And even last month we saw that the supply numbers up slightly 1.1%, but down year over year, 1.1 months of supply and at one month of supply.

Now, and I think the question is why, and I asked the same question in the King County video, because King County and Snohomish County are too different, right? Same metro area, um, King County, a little bit more expensive, and Snohomish County, a little bit more affordable in some ways, but very different and similar in a lot of ways. And they’re mirroring each other here. When you look at the amount of homes for sale, there is a substantial dropoff, but there’s also a substantial dropoff in new listings. But the surprising part is the 38.8% drop off in new listings is only seeing a 22.3% drop off in pending sales and the close sales. That’s what we’ve seen here recently, is the drop off of about 40%. So those have been similar, but the pending sales is starting to catch up. We have more buyer activity right now, so the pressure on the amount of houses is significant, and that’s why we’re seeing home selling over asking price and faster. Now, 22 days on market in Snohomish County is the average versus last year nine. So it’s a big jump, but the median is actually right in there. The median is right around a week, which is last year. The median and the average were very close, right? There wasn’t much variation, but this year we’re seeing more variation, which is, which is understandable. Some house is taking longer to sell than others based on their price point and the strategy that the agents are using to market.

But we’re seeing things sell faster. Things sell for over asking price. And the big reason is because there really aren’t as many people selling their houses right now, and there is more buyer activity, even with higher interest rates. The beginning of the year interest rates were hovering around six point a half percent. Now they’re hovering around 7%. Mortgage news daily, if you haven’t followed that site, every day, does a survey of some of the largest banks, and they have like a massive survey they do every day. They’re pulling what the rates are and averaging them out. Conventional everything, fha, va, whatever you want to see. Arms fixed, 15 year fixed rates, 30 year fixed rates. You can see it all there. It’s great. But rates are higher on average across the board, and home prices are also higher, and that makes it more difficult for buyers.

The window of opportunity that we’ve talked about over the last seven, eight months is getting tighter. It’s getting, it’s getting more difficult to buy again, because there is competition and higher interest rates, not just higher interest rates, right? Higher interest rates and less competition. Maybe you get it for less, maybe you get to negotiate the terms right now you’re not, you’re paying higher price than the asking price in a lot of cases, and you’re also having to loosen up on the terms and make the contract more favorable for sellers, which for sellers is great. And on the other hand, for buyers is not as great now happening in the condo market. Snohomish County has a condo market too. What? There’s condos in Snohomish County and I like to highlight them a few times a year. So we’re gonna do that here in this video. And if we look at the condo market, it’s different, very different.

New listings down 20.7% versus 38.8. That’s a big difference, right? There’s a lot smaller of a drop off for the condos pending sales down 14% versus 22.3, close sales down 26% versus 40, right? So the demand for condos maintained a little bit more. Um, days on market 17 versus 22 for single family. So condos are selling faster. Median sales price five 15, but down 4.6% about the same. King County was more dramatic. Average sales price, 558,146 down 10.5%. It’s actually more than the drop off for single family houses. Now in the King County video I mentioned, there has been very little drop off for the condos, and you normally see a larger drop off than you do for the single family when things get more difficult. In Snohomish County, you’re seeing that playing out a little bit with the average dropping off more than the average for the single family house.

But King County was actually the opposite. Being closer into the city was actually more valuable, right? Um, percentage of list price received still selling over asking price 1% above asking price. Snohomish County, the inventory numbers are still down about 35.2%. And the supply numbers, this is, this is a big difference here. Single-family houses have about one month of supply for the buyers and only 0.6 months or two weeks of supply for the buyers in Snohomish County. But across the board, King or Snohomish County, both have seen that condos have done a pretty good job of holding their value. There hasn’t been as big of a drop-off or change with the condo sales, and they’re selling relatively fast in comparison to the single-family houses. So overall, Snohomish County’s housing market has been getting better recently. 2023 has been a positive as far as the health of the housing market.

Um, and especially when you’re looking at the, the, the numbers, right? People wanna see if you’re a homeowner, you wanna see your home appreciating in value. Of course, if you’re a buyer, you want a better opportunity. So you don’t mind seeing things go the opposite way. But interestingly, when things are going down, most people don’t want to buy. They wanna sell when things are good and they wanna buy when things are bad, but they say that until actually have to do it. And then it’s a little bit disconcerting because well, things are down. So is this the time to buy or is it gonna get worse? Write all those questions. But what’s interesting is things are starting to get better. People are starting to come back, but housing prices are up 10%. Now, will I, do I think they’re gonna keep getting better? I, I, I think they will continue to increase.

I do. So is there still an opportunity? Yes. But is that opportunity as good as it used to be? No. So my summary here, Snohomish County’s housing market is heating up buyers. I think there’s still an opportunity, but I think it’s an opportunity you want to take advantage of sooner rather than later. I think if you’re somebody that’s a homeowner and you’re sitting on a lot of equity, you have an opportunity to sell and cash in and also have some competition or more favorable terms for you. And I think if you bought a house in the last few years and maybe you were underwater a little bit, you’re probably either breaking even or hardly underwater anymore and have that opportunity to make that move, sell the house and maybe relocate or do whatever you were hoping to do, uh, to get out of your house. Thanks so much for watching this month, Snohomish County Real Estate Market Update. If you got some value out of this video, please show some love, maybe a thumbs up, drop a comment. I love engaging with the comments, and even better if you have real estate questions or I can help you in any way with your real estate goals here in Snohomish County or King County for that matter, please don’t hesitate to reach out.