Monday NW Seattle Real Estate Market Update | September 21st, 2020
This week we discuss the usual interest rates, keybox openings and home sale numbers compared to last week. We also chat about the rising price of lumber and what the means for Buyers of new construction.
We understand that it is a confusing time right now. Each Monday, we will be sending out an update based on our experience over the past week to give you the NW Seattle Real Estate Market’s “Temperature”. We want to make sure that you are as informed as we are. Please don’t hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email if at any point you have additional questions or questions that relate to your specific situation. We are always happy to help.
Steve 📲 (c) 206-769-9577 📧stevehill@windermere.com
Sandra 📲 (c) 206-271-7100 📧sbrenner@windermere.com
Hey, everybody, welcome to week 28 of our Monday Market Update.
And interest rates continue to be phenomenal: They did tick up just a tiny little bit last week, they were at 2.875 for 30 year conforming, and 15 year conforming, 2.25%, which have been at 2.25% for quite a while.
And then jumbo rates still hovering right around 3%.
We thought that keybox showings were down because of the air quality. But what’s interesting is in the MLS, for keybox showings for the week ending 9/13, and this is system-wide, they were actually up by 5%. So that was a little surprising because it definitely felt like showings were down because- – Didn’t feel that way. – Yes, well, and also agents were telling us that their buyers had been canceling because of the air quality. But of course, this is a system wide stat and, you know, not everybody maybe had the bad air quality that we had. But that was nice to see that keybox showings were up.
And then also too, what was interesting is system-wide again, pending properties were actually down and down by quite a bit. They hadn’t been this low since the last holiday of 4th of July. So I think all of that was probably just related to Labor Day and kind of the last hurrah.
So in Northwest Seattle, there were 235 homes for sale.
There were 77 new listings and 75% of those listings were vacant.
Pending sales, 59 homes went pending with an average market time of 18 days.
Nine homes went pending inspection with an average market time of 121 days. But if you take one home that was on there for a super long time, the average market time was only 22 days. So one home really kind of skewed it.
And then closed sales, 67 homes were closed. They sold with an average market time of 18 days.
And the average price per square foot was $534, which was slightly up from the week before.
Well, and then what was also interesting to see too, so for the previous three weeks, well, and actually now four weeks, homes going under contract have not kept up with homes coming on the market. But this past week we were at 88%, which is great because the previous week, but again, we had the holiday, they were at I think 69% if I remember correctly. And then the previous two weeks we were at 90%. So we’re at least kind of going back up in the right direction again.
And too, so some really great news that came out last week was the National Association of Home Builders, their home pricing index was at an all-time high. So we’ve been doing this index for 35 years. They were an all-time high of 83, which is pretty amazing.
I think probably people who are doing home projects have noticed that the cost of a lumber has gone up. I just had this conversation with somebody yesterday, ’cause they got a quote on their deck and it was like outrageous. But the price of lumber has definitely gone up. It’s actually gone up by like 118% in the last, just the last few months. And a lot of that is obviously because of COVID and just not being able to move product through, but also because of all the wildfires that are going on. So yeah, so lumber prices are expected to stay high for a while. And with those higher prices they anticipate that that’s adding about $16,000 to the cost of a new construction home, on the average new construction home nationwide. So just kind of an FYI everybody.
And I think that’s it. – Very good, you guys have a great week. We will be back next week with our market update.
