Usually things quiet down a bit this time of year, especially between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not so in 2015! Buyers who were frustrated this summer due to not winning with multiple offers are back, hoping to buy while there is a slight lull and before interest rates go up. However, we aren’t seeing the bump in available inventory this late fall. In fact, in November, we dropped to the lowest number of homes and condos available for sale in the last ten years at 740 units. The number of homes under contract for November was 821 which means that properties are still flying off the market very quickly and the demand cannot be satiated!
Let’s see what happened to Seattle’s real estate market in key neighborhoods this November:
Inventory and Pendings
Below we compare the number of active listings (supply) and pendings (demand) for several of the key Seattle neighborhoods including Central Seattle, Queen Anne and Magnolia, Belltown and Downtown, Ballard and Greenlake, and North Seattle. Our table includes single family residences as well as condos comparing September 2014 and 2015.
Median Sales Prices
Prices are still on the rise. November’s median home price for residential and condos was $513,600 – a 17% increase over last November. 17%! In fact, the only month ever with a higher median sold price was this last August at $536,000.
I do expect the Federal Reserve will be raising rates in December, and although that might give buyers some breathing room due to less competition, there is still a lot of pent up demand (and still-growing demand due to our local economy) to be satisfied before we can resume a more-normal market.
My predictions will be out soon for 2016 and if you would like to receive those by mail, please contact me – your Seattle Home Guy – at sold@windermere.com or give me a call: (206) 226-5300.