Market Update — July 2024
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 June 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: 6,627 homes were sold in June 2024. The median price of $650,000 which represents a 4% growth YOY. This total sale volume translates to a dollar value of about $5.4B.
New construction: 859 new construction homes were sold in June 2024. The median sale price of new construction homes was $725,000.
Months of inventory: Given the current quantity of supply, it’ll take 2.17 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 June 2024 were Snohomish (1.37), Thurston (1.55), Kitsap (1.60), King (1.94), and Pierce (2.00). The data indicates the persistent shortage of supply relative to demand.
New listings: 9,984 new listings were added to the NWMLS database in June 2024 representing an increase of 5.3% compared to June 2023.
Mortgage rates: The Freddie Mac rate has edged and stayed down from it’s high in October/November 2023.
Average 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates over the past 12 months (Source: Freddie Mac)
Broader economy
Fed Holds Rates Steady, Indicates One Cut in 2024: After eleven rate hikes since March 2022, the Fed once again left their benchmark Federal Funds Rate unchanged at a range of 5.25% to 5.5%. This decision was unanimous and marks the seventh straight meeting they held rates steady.
Consumer Inflation Takes Important Steps Lower: The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures inflation on the wholesale level, was also below estimates last month. Headline PPI fell 0.2% in May, with the annual reading also moving lower from 2.3% to 2.2%. Core PPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was flat in May and the year-over-year reading fell from 2.4% to 2.3%.
