Puget Sound Housing Market Report: March 2018
Snapshot of the February Housing Market
The Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) is the largest full-service MLS in the Northwest and its membership includes more than 28,000 real estate brokers across 23 counties in Washington state. Each month they release a snapshot of the market in the northwest and the February 2018 numbers reflect the immense population boom that we've all been experiencing first hand!
New Listings Vs. Closed Sales
The median closed price in February was $385,000, which is a tied record high for the region! The median closed price for residential listings increased nearly 15% from February 2017.
Brokers added 436 more new listings to the database in February 2018 as compared to February 2017.
Brokers made $2.26 Billion in closed sales in February 2018. This total dollar value of closed sales rose more than 18% from February 2017.
Available Inventory
As any real estate broker would tell you, housing inventory is very tight! In February 2018 there were 7,921 active listings in the database, which is a 13% drop from the previous year.
In February 2017, the market had 2 months of inventory. As of February 2018, there were just 1.43 months of inventory on the market. That means that at the current rate of sales, it would take 1.43 months to sell every home that is active in the NWMLS inventory. The industry standard for a balanced market is 4-6 months!
Pending Sales
Homes under contract decreased by 229 by listings from February 2017. The total value sum of homes under contract increased by then 10% from February 2017.
On the Scene: Northwest Flower & Garden Show
Those of you who know me well are aware that I am an avid gardener and part-time garden designer. I recently purchased a new home this past year and with the remodel done, I am now working on installing two new gardens - one for privacy which will be drought-resistant and another for show and pleasure.
This past weekend, I attended the Northwest Flower & Garden Show at the Washington State Convention Center. It was an extraordinary experience to be surrounded by so many other gardening enthusiasts! With over an acre of show gardens, it was a busy day of exploring outdoor living, edible gardening and sustaninability. Going to garden shows provide me with inspiration and they are the perfect outlet for my creativity. You will find me browsing the nurseries now with my garden designs in hand.
When I was in San Diego last week, I purchased three large exterior pots to place at the entrance of my new Airbnb. My son had the honor of transporting them back to Washington for me!
San Francisco Nips at Seattle's Heels in Latest Case Shiller Index Results
November 2017 was Seattle’s 15th month leading the nation on the S&P/Case-Shiller’s Home Price Index, the nation’s pre-eminent measure of single-family home prices.
Having briefly subsided from September into October, residential prices in Seattle resumed their upward trek, with the index turning positive by 0.18% in November. The official report from Case Shiller noted that “Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Francisco reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities. In November, Seattle led the way with a 12.7% year-over-year price increase, followed by Las Vegas with a 10.6% increase, and San Francisco with a 9.1% increase.”
Competing Pacific Coast gateway San Francisco’s three-month spurt of price growth comes near the end of a year that has brought it past the highs of the subprime bubble a decade ago. According to Drew Becher of the Bay Area’s Paragon Real Estate, “All neighborhoods in the city of San Francisco itself have now surpassed previous peak values by very substantial, and sometimes astonishing margins,” and “high-price tier homes [have] been climbing well above previous 2007 peak values,” exceeding $1,087,500 as of October 2017.
Compare this result with Seattle’s organic demand-driven price trend. Feverish hiring by local employers has exacerbated an acute shortage of downtown condominiums, keeping some would-be buyers in apartments while driving the more affluent to soak up single-family homes in all areas of the city. The now well-established spillover effect of the shortage has forced buyers into competing for single-family homes throughout the Seattle Metropolitan Statistical area upon which Case Shiller’s index is based. This has escalated prices from the Eastside as far north as Skagit County, and now into Tacoma as well.
For Seattle’s performance on the Case-Shiller Index, download Case Shiller’s summary report.
NWMLS 2017 Housing Market in Review
The NWMLS recently released this great video that summarizes the 2017 Housing Market in the Puget Sound region. I invite you to watch this 1+ minute video!
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Hold onto Your Hat- The Kitsap County Fair Is Coming
It’s time to put on a cowboy, or cowgirl hat and dust off those boots, because The Big County Fair is riding into town this month. Kitsap County Fairgrounds will host the annual Kitsap County Fair & Stampede from August 23rd to 27th where locals and visitors are encouraged to take part in the “largest interaction of residents from Kitsap county and the surrounding counties”.