Market Update — November 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 October 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: 6,479 homes were sold in October 2024. The median price of $650,000 which represents a 8% growth YOY. This total sale volume translates to a dollar value of about $5.3B.
New construction: 761 new construction homes were sold in October 2024. The median sale price of new construction homes was $749,990.
Months of inventory: Given the current quantity of supply, it’ll take 2.5 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. The counties with the lowest months of inventory in October 2024 were Snohomish (1.53), Thurston (1.77), King (1.98), and Kitsap (1.99), Pierce (2.06). The data indicates the persistent shortage of supply relative to demand.
New listings: 7,726 new listings were added to the NWMLS database in October 2024 representing an increase of 26% compared to October 2023.
Mortgage rates: This month the Freddie Mac rate slightly edged up.
Average 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates over the past 12 months (Source: Freddie Mac)
Broader economy
Job Growth Stalls in October: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that there were just 12,000 jobs created in October, which was well below estimates of 113,000. Negative revisions to August and September also shaved 112,000 jobs from those months combined. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%, though there’s important rounding information to understand about this, as noted below.
Another Record High for Home Prices: September’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) showed that headline inflation rose 0.2% from August, while the year-over-year reading fell from 2.3% to 2.1%. Core PCE, the Fed’s preferred method which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3% monthly. The yearover-year reading held steady at 2.7%, remaining near the lowest level in over three years.
