Seattle Real Estate Trends: February 2016

Mariners baseball is starting in just a few weeks, the tulips are up, and all my listings are pending! Let’s see what happened in Seattle’s February real estate market in key neighborhoods:

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 February 2015 and 2016.

market update 2016-02a

Median Sales Prices

Median sales prices are up quite dramatically in some areas comparing February 2015 versus February 2016 numbers. See the tables below!

market update 2016-02b

With the number of sales dropping in some areas due to lack of inventory, median sales price adjustments may get more pronounced. For example, in North Seattle, the number of sales dropped from 81 last February to 65 this February. However, in Ballard/Greenlake, the sales went from 119 last year to 189. Belltown went from 23 last year to 40 this year. Queen Anne/Magnolia was about at par with 69 sales last year and 71 this year. Central Seattle went from 105 to 83.

In Ballard/Greenlake, there were several lower-priced properties that sold that might be skewing the median a bit. The Cove at Verdian counted for 8 of the 189 sales, all under $239,000. In addition the Vik condo project accounted for 64 sales, ranging from to $261,900 to $755,900.

Just like in Belltown last summer with the Ensignia project, as inventory is low and a buildings-worth of new product comes on the market, I expect median home prices to skew based on the pricing in the development.

The median home price for February in all of Seattle for both residential and condos was $511,000, which is 16.1% above last February’s $440,000. February had 695 listings available on the market and as of this writing, there are 747 active listings, which is good for our market.

If you would like to learn more about what is happening in your neighborhood, let’s talk! Please contact me – your Seattle Home Guy – at sold@windermere.com or give me a call: (206) 226-5300.

Seattle Real Estate Market Update – Year to Date

I know I have been saying this now for a number of months, but the Seattle market has been off the charts! Instead of doing a month over month review, I wanted to take a look at the overall trends and compare how the real estate market is doing at the 2014 halfway point, comparing year-to-date residential and condominium data for 2011-2014. What I found is several areas are feeling the inventory pinch in a big way. Take a look at the summaries for the five areas I track below:

Central Seattle (Area 305)

Central Seattle is feeling the inventory pinch, though not as bad as other areas. You can see our surplus of inventory in 2011 and how much it declined over 2012 and 2013. We have not seen much change between 2013 and 2014, other than the average inventory has declined by an average of about 12.5%.

2014-july-central-seattle-active-pending

The number of solds increased dramatically in 2013 (+32.8%), but inventory challenges have caused 2014 to get off on a slower start.

2014-july-central-seattle-property-sold

Queen Anne/Magnolia (Area 700)

Demand for homes is strong in these areas. Again, average inventory declined between 2011 and 2012 and has stayed about the same over 2013 and 2014. Average pendings are about the same as well, but you can see how close the pendings are to the inventory which indicates that demand is high.

2014-july-queen-anne-active-pending

The number of solds over 2013 and 2014 have also been stable. These would likely be higher if more inventory was available.

2014-july-queen-anne-property-sold

Belltown/Downtown (Area 701)

In 2011, housing demand in this area was the lowest among the five areas I evaluated, though not significantly so. This improved dramatically in 2012 but even more so in 2013 and 2014. Average inventory has improved in 2014, but only slightly. However, the average number of homes under contract have increased even more than the inventory has improved.

2014-july-belltown-active-pending

Accordingly, the number of sold properties has increased in 2014. However, we are not seeing a large increase in solds between 2011 through 2014 as we have in other areas.

2014-july-belltown-property-sold

Ballard/Greenlake (Area 705)

Wow!  Inventory decreased dramatically between 2011 and 2012. 2013 and 2014 are about the same in terms of average active listings and pendings. What is interesting is the number of average pendings is higher in both years than the number of available listings. This is indicative of very high demand.

2014-july-ballard-active-pending

Solds are up slightly and would be even higher were there more inventory to purchase:

2014-july-ballard-property-sold

North Seattle (Area 710)

This is the most in-demand area at the moment with the average number of pendings the same as last year, but the average inventory has dropped 11.38% over last year. Again, we see a dramatic change between 2011 and 2012, but 2013 and 2014 have the highest demand.

2014-july-north-seattle-active-pending

The number of solds has also increased, although this would be higher if more inventory was available.

2014-july-north-seattle-sold-property

Of the 12 listings I have at the moment, 8 of them are pending after being on the market an average of 11.88 days. What does this market mean for your real estate investment? Please give me a call at sold@windermere.com or give me a call: (206) 226-5300.

Seattle Real Estate Market Update March 2014

In the month of March there were 797 ACTIVE listings in Seattle. In the month of March 736 homes went PENDING. This means that 1 out of every 1.1 homes on the market went SOLD PENDING.
This implies a 1.1 month supply of inventory.

  • Any ratio under 3.0 is considered a “seller’s market indicator”
  • Any ratio between 3.1 to 6.0 is considered a “neutral market indicator”
  • Any ratio over 6.1 is considered a “buyer’s market indicator”

The Seattle inventory ratios for the last twelve months are as follows:

march2014seattle-market-numbers

In fact, the last 26 months (February 2012 through March 2014) have all had seller’s market indicators!
Another way to look at inventory is the number of homes available for sale. In March 2014, there were 797 active listings available for sale. The 10 year moving average for the number of active listings available in March is 1,704. Therefore we are 53% below our 10 year moving average for Seattle housing inventory.
Inventory continues to be a challenge in the Seattle area. As you can see in the graphs below, in most areas, supply cannot keep up with demand. I expect these conditions will continue until we have enough homes available for the number of buyers who are in the market.

mar2014-seattle-north

mar2014-seattle-ballard

belltown ballard

mar2014-central-seattle

Median Sales Prices
The Seattle housing market peaked in July of 2007 with a median sales price of $496,000. The median home price of a Seattle home in March 2014 is $441,000. Therefore the average price of a Seattle home has come down 11% since we peaked in July of 2007.

Median Sales Prices in most areas have risen along with the high demand. However, due to lack of inventory in certain price points, median sales prices in some areas have seen a decline because there are simply not enough homes available at higher price points.

2014-2013-march-comparison

If you have been wondering how your home fits in the market or would like additional data or information, please contact me. I would be happy to look at the numbers for your neighborhood and let you know where you stand with your real estate investment. Please contact me at sold@windermere.com or give me a call: (206) 226-5300.