The news this past week is that the numbers for September are in and it confirms what we suspected, September was the busiest month this year for new listings bringing the number of homes for sale to a level we haven’t seen since 2012. Though surprisingly, the median price increased month-over-month from August to $706,500.

Our take is that with the run-up in prices over the last six years many people decided, likely as a result of the head tax scare, to capitalize on their gains and sell. Especially people who were “accidental landlords” and had a rental property or two from the last downturn that they rented out instead of selling. This influx of inventory late in the year has been a huge win for buyers putting them in the drivers seat for the first time in five years. I suspect we’re going to see another large wave of new inventory hitting in early 2019 as many agents are counseling clients to not sell this fall and wait for 2019. All this new inventory will sell eventually, the fundamentals are still strong, and we’ll recover from a 9-12 month slump (famous last words).

Single-family & townhomes:

• 524 homes sold
  • -26.71% from last month
  • -28.22% from last year
• $750,000 median list price
  • +1.35% from last month
  • +5.63% from last year
• $408 median list price per square foot
  • -5.77% from last month
  • +0.99% from last year
• 100% average sale-to-list price ratio
  • Same as last month
  • -0.20% from last year
• 1202 new listings
  • +35.82% from last month
  • +22.40% from last year
• 1,479 homes for sale
  • +31.94% from last month
  • +87.93% from last year
• 12 days is the average time homes have been on-market
  • +20.00% from last month
  • +50.00% from last year

Condos:

• 172 homes sold
  • -23.56% from last month
  • -33.07% from last year
• $515,000 median list price
  • +3.20% from last month
  • +14.22% from last year
• $603 median list price per square foot
  • +0.67% from last month
  • +9.44% from last year
• 99.2% average sale-to-list price ratio
  • -0.80% from last month
  • -3.13% from last year
• 433 new listings
  • +21.63% from last month
  • +34.06% from last year
• 632 homes for sale
  • +27.94% from last month
  • +151.79% from last year
• 18 days is the average time homes have been on-market
  • +80% from last month
  • +125% from last year

What did other outlets have to say?

• Seattle Times, As sales plunge, King County home inventory has biggest jump on record
• Seattle Bubble, Home prices fell more between May and September this year than any previous year
• PSBJ, Home sales down, inventory up as Seattle-area market cool down continues

Single-family & Townhomes

Condos