Market Update — January 2025
We firmly believe timely and relevant data is key to making good decisions. To this end, we are committed to providing our community and clients with actionable data and insights about the local real estate market.
Local real estate market
With the data from December 2024 in, here’s an overview of the key aspects of the local real estate market. The real estate data below is collected from Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS).
Median price: The chart below shows the latest median sales prices of homes over the past three years in the Greater Seattle area over the past three years:
Homes sold: 4,312 homes were sold in December 2024 (up 5.2% compared to 4,098 in December 2023). The median price of $623,500 which represents a 4.3% increase YOY. This total sale volume translates to a dollar value of about $3.7B.
New construction: 752 new construction homes were sold in December 2024. The median sale price of new construction homes was $736,250.
Months of inventory: Given the current quantity of supply, it’ll take 1.98 months for every listed home to sell. To put this number in context, note that the months of inventory for a balanced market is considered to be 4 to 6 months. The counties with the lowest months of inventory in December 2024 were Snohomish (1.09), Kitsap (1.51), Thurston (1.58), King (1.63), and Pierce (1.75). The data indicates the persistent shortage of supply relative to demand.
New listings: 3,166 new listings were added to the NWMLS database in December 2024 representing an increase of 9.8% compared to December 2023.
Mortgage rates: This month the Freddie Mac rate shows no major month-over-month change.
Average 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates over the past 12 months (Source: Freddie Mac)
Broader U.S. economy
Big Upside Jobs Surprise: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that there were 256,000 jobs created in December, which was well above estimates of 160,000. Revisions to October and November shaved 8,000 jobs from those months combined. The unemployment rate fell from 4.2% to 4.1%.
Private Sector Job Growth Hits 4-Month Low: ADP’s Employment Report showed that private sector job growth was weaker than economists had forecasted in December, as employers added 122,000 new jobs versus the 140,000 that were expected. This marked the lowest number of new jobs added in the private sector since August. The job growth that was previously reported for November (+146,000) was unrevised.
