Investing in real estate in Snohomish, Pierce, and King counties continues to deliver strong results even while the broader economy is struggling. With the data from October 2022 in, here’s a snapshot of the key aspects of the local market. The data is collected from Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS):
Median price: The median closed price for residential homes and condos increased by 3.5% year over year (YOY) to $59523,000. Since our buyers typically buy properties in King, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties, here’s the YOY median closed price increase in these counties:
King: +8.8%
Snohomish: +25%
Pierce: +11.8%
To put these numbers in perspective, note that S&P 500 and Nasdaq have moved by -15.2% and -7.5%, respectively.
New construction: 688 new construction homes were sold in October 2022. The median sale price of new construction homes was $699,994, which is up by 0.1% since October 2021.
Months of inventory: At the current rate of sales, it’ll take 2 months for every listed home to sell. This number was 0.66 in October 2021. To put these numbers in context, note that the months of inventory for a balanced market is considered to be 4 to 6 months. This underscores the persistent shortage of supply relative to demand. It seems the market is inching toward stability although homes are still under-supplied.
Homes sold: 6,464 homes were sold in October 2022. This translates to a dollar value of $4.68B.
New listings: 7,260 new listings were added to the NWMLS database in October 2022. This is a decrease of -21.2% from October 2021.
Buyers insights: While interest rates are going up, two factors help counter higher rates
More lenders are now offering temporary rate buy-down options. This helps buyers to tide over the next couple of years before a potential refinance.
Home prices are growing at a slower pace, which gives a typical buyer more power than they had over the last few years.
