Market Update — June 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 May 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: 851 new construction homes were sold in May 2023. The median sale price of new construction homes was $699,995.
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 persistent shortage of supply relative to demand in the area.
Homes sold: 6,310 homes were sold in May 2023. This translates to a dollar value of $4.7B.
New listings: 9,427 new listings were added to the NWMLS database in May 2023. This is a decrease of -29.3% from May 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 shows no major change over the past month.
30 Year Fixed Mortgage Rates — June 2022 to June 2023 (Source: Freddie Mac)
Broader economy
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that there were 339,000 jobs created in May, which was much larger than estimates. Job growth in March and April was also revised higher, adding 93,000 additional jobs in those months combined. The unemployment rate rose from 3.4% to 3.7%.
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which is considered the “gold standard” for appreciation, showed home prices nationwide rose 0.4% from February to March after seasonal adjustment. This follows the 0.3% monthly gain seen in February. Home prices were also 0.7% higher when compared to March 2022, though this annual reading is a decline from the 2.1% gain reported in February.
Private payrolls were much stronger than expected last month, as the ADP Employment Report showed that there were 278,000 jobs created in May. Annual pay for job stayers increased 6.5% and job changers saw an average increase of 12.1%. While these figures are still high, they reflect a year-long slowdown and lower wage-pressured inflation.
