A Lack of Inventory Drives Price Increases Across Puget Sound
Fierce competition in the Seattle condo market fuels 22.6% gains in King County.
In their latest press release, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) reports that the January 2018 real estate market far from slowed down, as "activity shows a slight year-over-year gain in pending sales, a double-digit increase in prices, and continued shortages of inventory."
On the whole, more listings were added for sale across all counties, and "in King County, the number of new listings outgained pending sales for the first time since September."
Though the number of pending sales increased on the whole year-over-year, 8 of the 23 counties served by the NWMLS “including three in the Puget Sound region (King, Kitsap and Snohomish), reported fewer pending sales than a year ago.” In addition, inventory of single-family homes and condos across all counties dropped 17.6% compared to last year, totaling approximately 1.5 months of inventory overall.
Condo Highlight
A severe shortage of condominium inventory continued, as Snohomish County had about 0.8 months of supply and King County had 0.92 months. There were just 427 active condo listings available on the market at the end of January, "down almost 31 percent from a year ago." Prices are rising quickly, as many counties saw double-digit gains including King County, where "prices for homes and condos combined shot up 20.3 percent" to $571,250. Looking at only condo sales in King County, prices increased almost 22.6 percent compared to last year.
Want to know more? Browse the NWMLS by-county statistical summary here.