October 2021 Issue

September’s housing market remained “very active” to “frenzied” around Washington state with brokers reporting year-over-year (YOY) gains in new listings, closed sales, and prices. Brokers with Northwest Multiple Listing Service also detected growing stability in the condominium market.
A new report from Northwest MLS shows brokers added slightly more new listings last month (11,373) than a year ago (11,210). That volume, which includes single-family homes and condominiums, nearly matched the total for August (11,437), and barely outgained the number of pending sales (11,318) for the 26 counties in the report.
Compared to the same month a year ago, pending sales slipped about 6% (11,318 versus 12,053). Despite that drop, J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, noted the number of mutually accepted offers in the Puget Sound region (King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties) made last month the MLS’ second-best September, based on records going back to 2003. Last year’s 4-county total of 8,606 pending sales is the highest volume for that timeframe spanning nearly two decades.
Low inventory continues to pose challenges for buyers. At month end, Northwest MLS members reported 7,757 total active listings system-wide. That marked a slight improvement from August when there were 7,425 active listings, but it was a drop of nearly 14.8% from twelve months ago.
As of the end of September, there was about three weeks of supply (0.75 months), slightly better than August (0.70 months), but less than the same month a year ago (0.89 months). There has not been more than one month of supply since July 2020 when it reached 1.04 months.
“With decreases in active listings in King and Snohomish counties, price pressure may increase in urban areas of the region as people return to the city for work,” suggested James Young, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington.
One option for those wanting to live near urban job centers in anticipation of workplace reopenings may be condos.
“I’m happy to report that the Seattle-area condominium market, which was negatively impacted by COVID-19, has stabilized, reporting consistent increases in both sales and prices,” noted Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate.
In King County, Northwest MLS figures for September show a 20% jump in the number of condos that closed during September compared to a year ago; within the Seattle map areas, closed sales were up more than 34%. (King County currently accounts for about 70% of condo inventory and 60% of condo closed sales.) Condo prices rose more than 8% countywide.
According to NWMLS data, a single-family home that sold in King County last month had a median selling price of $825,600, while for condos it was $466,501.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced a one-month extension to the state’s eviction moratorium bridge. The mortarium bridge was set to expire at the end of September, but will now expire Oct. 31 at 11:59 p.m. As before, evictions are still allowed in cases where the landlord intends to sell or move into the property, or if an affidavit declares there are health and safety issues to the property created by the occupant. The moratorium on evictions was first enacted at the start of the pandemic to aid struggling tenants who lost income. The governor’s office says they hope the one-month extension will give counties more time to get relief funds to renters.

A new Consumer Housing Trends report from Zillow revealed that despite the blistering market for much of the year, most home seller experiences in 2021 were generally similar to past years. There was, however, one notable exception: Nearly a quarter of sellers reported getting four or more offers on their properties.

Twenty-four percent of sellers got at least four bids on their homes this year, up from 14% in 2020 and from an average of 15% over the past three years. The share of sellers who received three offers is also up, rising to 16% this year from 13% last year.