Real Estate Market Heats Up Across Puget Sound

KIRKLAND, WA — Puget Sound's housing market is heating up fast heading into the summer months, and May already set a few new records, according to real estate experts.

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service, a Kirkland-based firm that maintains a database for brokers in 26 counties, outlined some "chaotic" trends in a new report published this week. As noted by the Seattle PI, compared with last May, the median home price skyrocketed 30 percent across the region, growing by 23 percent in King County and 35 percent in Snohomish County.

"Everything is about breaking records this past year with record-breaking housing prices, record-breaking low inventory, and record-breaking consumer savings rates during the pandemic," said Meredith Hansen, owner at Keller Williams Greater Seattle. "All this equals a very strong, chaotic market that may not slow down for the next year."

At the same time, the month-to-month number of active listings for single-family homes dipped slightly, and May's inventory was down by 46.6 percent year-over-year.

"Last month's listings came in lower than we would normally see due to the month starting on Saturday and ending with a holiday weekend," said J. Lennox Scott, CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate. "New resale listings typically go on the market on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. In today's instant-response market new listings often go pending over the weekend or early next week."

Here are a few May highlights in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties:

King County (houses + condos)

• Average price: $982,712
• Median Price: $775,000
• New listings: 4,372
• Closed sales: 3,643
• Pending sales: 4,379

Snohomish County (houses + condos)

• Average price: $701,278
• Median price: $655,000
• New listings: 1,757
• Closed sales: 1,469
• Pending sales: 1,886

Pierce County (houses + condos)

• Average price: $553,533
• Median price: $500,000
• New listings: 1,865
• Closed sales: 1,451
• Pending sales: 1,878

Even with close to 12,000 new listings for homes and condos across the region in May, high demand continues to chip away the supply and drive up prices, experts said. For single-family homes, the report found deals closed at 109.5 percent of the asking price in King County. Houses and condos were both pricier on the Eastside than in Seattle, the Seattle Times found.

"The dramatic increase in prices and low inventory just continue in such a way that although we have more inventory coming on the market, it is immediately absorbed because of a demand that simply cannot be met," said John Deely, an executive vice president at Coldwell Bank Bain.

For condos, May saw pending sales outpace new listings, with overall supply "dwindling" in King County, where sales surged 62.5 percent compared to a year ago and Seattle's soared 83.7 percent. Across the region, overall condo sales were double the same time last year, with prices up 21.7 percent.

In Seattle, experts said the condo market appeared to be recovering from pandemic patterns, which saw many owners sell and relocate away from the downtown core amid work-from-home policies.

"The good news is the Seattle condo market has settled back down with inventory dropping and sales rising," said Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere. "Because of the shift in this market there was a price reset, but this appears to be luring buyers who previously thought they could not afford to buy downtown, leading to more balance between supply and demand."

Another likely factor in the shift, experts said, is the pending return of more workers to traditional office environments, driving buyers back into urban markets to avoid long commutes.

Realtors do not expect the rush on real estate to end any time soon.

"We are in a prime position to see a good number of resale listings and a proportional number of homes going under contract," Scott said. "Frenzy-level buyer demand has not waned. The local market is still virtually sold out in the more affordable and mid-price ranges, as well as into the luxury ranges in some areas."

Read more via the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.