Seattle weekly wrap-up: buyer interest slowly returning

For the second week in a row, buyers’ interest in Seattle real estate increased as the number of pending homes was up almost 9% to 172 – up even in the face of 7% mortgage rates. While rates have doubled year-over-year, consider that Seattle home prices are now down 11% from their spring peak. On the blog we look at what buying a home in June versus now would cost you, the answer surprised me!

Listings were surprisingly up 5% to 279 new listings last week. Normally we’d be trending down this time of year… Buyers also saw 207 price reductions, down from seeing 236 the week before. At this point 42% of active homes have had price reductions.

I expect we’ll see further softening in pricing this fall as most buyers I’ve chatted with are waiting until 2023. This means it could be an okay time to be a buyer this fall as you could avoid the competition we usually see in the first half of the year, being the seller’s only option enabling you to dictate the terms, negotiate a seller credit to buy down and lower your rate, then re-fi when rates, hopefully, decline.

The only new listing to catch my eye is this loft at 19th Ave Lofts. Speaking of lofts, the one we’re listing at Monique just had a price reduction to $599k. We also have some other great listings looking for buyers – a 70s contemporary on Perkins Lane looking for someone to update it, an essentially vacant lot on Perkins Lane, a midcentury rambler in Lynnwood, and two at Gridiron, #906 and #1111.

Tough sports day yesterday!