Market Update — September 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 August 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: 800 new construction homes were sold in August 2023. The median sale price of new construction homes was $682,673.
Months of inventory: At the current rate of sales, it’ll take around 1.71 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 data point confirms the enduring shortage of supply relative to demand in the area.
Homes sold: 6,734 homes were sold in August 2023 with the median price of $615,000. This translates to a dollar value of about $5.2B.
New listings: 8,152 new listings were added to the NWMLS database in August 2023. This is a decrease of -17.8% from August 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 stable over the past month hovering just below 7%.
Average 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates — September 2022 to September 2023 (Source: Freddie Mac)
Broader economy
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which is considered the “gold standard” for appreciation, showed home prices nationwide rose 0.7% from May to June after seasonal adjustment, marking the fifth consecutive month of gains. Prices were flat when compared to June 2022, which was when prices peaked in this report.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that there were 187,000 jobs created in August. While this was slightly better than estimates, job growth in June and July was revised lower substantially, subtracting 110,000 jobs in those months combined. The unemployment rate also rose from 3.5% to 3.8%.
