Seattle single-family October market report: median price ticks up

The numbers for what the Seattle single-family and townhome real estate market did in October are out. Bad news for buyers, good news for sellers, the median price ticked up to $835,000 but it is still well below the $893,500 high we saw in May of this year.

Typically prices peak in the spring/early summer and cool off in the back half of the year. And of course, while the median price is up (but really down), our experience writing offers day in and day out is that the market is still very competitive for good homes.

Our advice to buyers is that, depending on what you’re looking for, you may get a better deal now than in the spring/early summer of 2022. Though if you’re looking for what many would consider a nice, move-in-ready house, you’re likely to be frustrated with a lack of options and when something does come up it, it may be more competitive than the spring as there are many buyers focused on fewer listings.

Our advice to sellers is that if you have a move-in-ready great house, no need to wait until 2022, the market is strong for selling now but the holidays are rapidly approaching and we don’t advise selling in the thick of the holiday season.

Here’s a deep dive into all the numbers…

Like median price the median dollars per square foot, is also up.

Buyers weren’t as busy as September, in October they put 892 homes under contract, but that’s still a lot more than we typically see this time of year (600-700 in previous years)

The last few years the median days on market jumps up in the fall as buyers get distracted with back-to-school and then the holidays, but not this year. Homes moved quickly in October.

As for sellers, they were busy too, though not surprisingly, less busy than September.

At the end of the month, there were 642 homes for sale.

Months of supply is a measure of how long it’d take to sell all the homes for sale. Not surprisingly that number is low – it’d take less than a month to sell all the homes for sale. I had thought we’d see it increase in October, but it dipped to 0.7 months.