Eastside weekly wrap-up: Amazon returns to the office…again

The big news this week isn’t what buyers and sellers were doing but Amazon announcing that workers will be returning to the office on May 1st. The expectation is that workers will be expected to be in the office at least three days a week. Now this has a bigger impact for Seattle given their large South Lake Union campus but they also have offices in Bellevue and many workers moved to the Eastside during the remote-first/COVID days. This is Amazon’s third attempt to bring workers back to the office but it will have an impact on the real estate market as buyers and sellers determine which office they need to go to and how that commute changes their lifestyle.

We’ll wait and see what that impact will be but this week, sellers put 7% fewer homes on the market, just 101. It’s not ideal for buyers as total inventory has dropped every week this year as sellers are slow to get off the sidelines as they watch what buyers are doing. We’re down to 497 active listings on the Eastside. The low inventory is certainly helping newly listed sellers though – 36% of the pending sales this week spent less than 5 days on market.

Speaking of, buyers put 4% fewer homes under contract than the week prior. The 113 pending sales is the second week in a row of slowing sales. With school breaks primarily happening this week, some buyers might already be in vacation mode but interest rates climbing to 6.8% for a 30 year fixed rate loan also won’t help.

For homes that caught our eye, a $12.9M European-inspired estate in Bridle Trails jumped out as well as $3.8M NW contemporary in Kirkland. For recent/new construction, check out this $5.3M modern home in Bellevue and for those watching new construction condos, Avenue topped out – read more in Matt’s latest update!

If you’ve got some free time in the next couple of weeks, don’t miss Seattle’s Home & Garden Show and our next home buying class is on March 8th!