The headline for NWMLS’s October report on housing prices reads “Home Sales and Prices Still Climbing Around Puget Sound,” which might as well just be the boilerplate headline they use every month.
Saying that the most recent month was a good one for sellers and rough one for buyers seems pointless these days. You just kinda assume it until something shocking happens.
Over at Seattle Bubble, they take the King County numbers and put them in a handy chart, letting you know whether or not the data spells good news for buyers or sellers. Usually, even if the prices are rising, there’s some kind of mix between the two. This month, however...
Well then...
The only somewhat good news for buyers is that pending sales went down a little bit. Still, an 18.2 percent drop in active listings spells doom for any buyers hoping to ride a trend of slowing price increases.
NWMLS notes that their members reported 9,950 pending sales during October but only added 7,591 new listings, the lowest number since January.
OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate, comes correct on what buyers can continue to look forward to in the coming months. "Unfortunately for buyers who were hoping to have more homes to choose from this fall, listings in October fell to levels we haven't seen since the 1990s - and at this point, we probably won't see any sizable increase in inventory until the spring at the earliest.”
While the overall housing supply came in at 1.8 months, King County now stands at 1.1 months of inventory, with several spots reporting less than a month. Six months of supply is considered a balanced housing market.
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