In early December, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) press release indicated that home buyers in our region are feeling less pressure and more options amidst lending limit increases and softening home price growth.
Read MoreAmidst Seattle losing its top spot on the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index and a slowdown in Amazon hiring, GeekWire asks, “Is Amazon responsible for Seattle’s housing cooldown?” According to the article, in this case, “correlation does not necessarily mean causation,” as market experts say that an increase in the number of homes for sale and fewer buyers on the market are at the root of changes.
Read MoreAfter 20 months of leading the nation in home price growth, Seattle Times reports that the Evergreen state now trails behind Nevada in year-over-year price gains, though—to the chagrin of buyers everywhere—it’s not “because homes here have suddenly become cheap.” As of June 2018, prices across the state as a whole grew 12.1% compared to this same time last year, down slightly from the 12.8 percent increases reported in May. Many of the region’s markets saw a deceleration of at least 1 percent from May to June, including Seattle, Bellingham, Mount Vernon/Anacortes and Bremerton/Silverdale, among others.
Read MoreThough the Seattle-area real estate market has decidedly been in favor of sellers for the past couple of years, buyers felt a bit of relief in July, as inventory increased for the third consecutive month. As Puget Sound Business Journal reports, the median sales price for July 2018 was up just 5-percent on a year-over-year basis, a stark decline from the 18-percent surge from the spring sales season. The root cause comes down to inventory, as there were just over 5,000 homes and condominiums available for sale last month, marking “a remarkable 48 percent more than July 2017.” After three months of inventory gains, supply is now higher than it’s been since early 2015.
Read MoreThe Seattle area real estate market is in dire need of home inventory and some relief has come for buyers, as the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported that real estate brokers added 14,524 new listings to the market in May, which was the first time this figure has topped 14,000 since May 2008.
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