Market Update — July 2023
We 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 June 2023 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:
New construction: 885 new construction homes were sold in June 2023. The median sale price of new construction homes was $692,755.
Months of inventory: At the current rate of sales, it’ll take around 1.5 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. So the current value of around 1.5 months confirms the enduring shortage of supply relative to demand in the area.
Homes sold: 6,842 homes were sold in June 2023 with the median price of $625,000. This translates to a dollar value of $5.3B.
New listings: 9,481 new listings were added to the NWMLS database in June 2023. This is a decrease of -33.3% from June 2022, which exacerbates the low supply. This indicates fewer property owners are likely to be interested in selling their homes exacerbating the chronic shortage of supply.
Mortgage rates: The Freddie Mac rate has been slightly edging up over the past month.
Average 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates — July 2022 to July 2023 (Source: Freddie Mac)
Broader economy
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that there were 209,000 jobs created in June, which was weaker than estimates of 240,000. Job growth in April and May was also revised lower, subtracting 110,000 jobs in those months combined. The unemployment rate declined slightly from 3.7% to 3.6%, though it’s still above April’s reading of 3.4%.
The minutes from the Fed’s June meeting showed that the Fed is planning additional hikes to their benchmark Fed Funds Rate this year. This is the interest rate for overnight borrowing for banks and it is not the same as mortgage rates. When the Fed hikes the Fed Funds Rate, they are trying to slow the economy and curb inflation.
