What a difference a month makes! The market in January has felt very different from the December market, in a positive way. Part of this is seasonal. The 1st quarter of the year is typically more robust than the 4th quarter. So far in January for NW Seattle, homes going under have kept up with new listings coming on. In the past two weeks we’ve had 61 new listings and 65 homes go under contract. We are also starting to see more homes have offer review dates. 23% of new listings had review dates, up from about 10% in November and December. This is great news for sellers. As Brokers start to feel the market heating up, more and more new listings will have review dates.
For our friends in SW Snohomish county, the market is also picking up. Homes going under contract are easily surpassing homes coming on the market. Days on market are coming down, which is welcome relief for nervous Sellers.
What I found interesting as I was gathering stats for NW Seattle, is that in the past week four homes with less than two days on the market went Pending Inspection (PI). This means they are under contract with a buyer inspection contingency in place. The buyer can walk for any reason during this contingency. One of these homes even had a seller provided inspection report available. Another one had in the broker comments “No more showings as the home is Pending Inspection”. Both of these drive me up the wall because neither broker, in my opinion, provided great service to their Sellers. Obviously, I am not privy to the details. However, the Broker with the inspection report should have been stronger at negotiating to keep the seller from going Pending Inspection. The second one is just ridiculous! The home is vacant. Why on earth would a Broker want to discourage any other Broker from showing the house during this contingency. This does not serve the Seller in any way. As you can tell, this type of representation strikes a nerve with me. Steve and I have only had one seller in the past seven years go Pending Inspection. It’s our job to protect our clients and serve their interests. This just feels like sloppy work.
Interest rates have been relatively stable for the past three weeks. Conforming rates have been right around 6%. The Fed is meeting again this week. All expectations are that they will raise rates by another ¼ point, which would be the lowest rate hike since they started raising rate. This is good news for both Buyers and Sellers!
Northwest Seattle Real Estate Market Activity
| During the Last 2 Weeks: | Previous 2 Weeks: |
| Inventory – 142 | Inventory – 154 |
| New Listings – 61 | New Listings – 48 |
| Under Contract – 65 | Under Contract – 53 |
| Sold – 36 | Sold – 34 |
| Price per Sq/Ft – $521 | Price per Sq/Ft – $509 |
-Steve & Sandra
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠, 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙/𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒! 𝑊𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝!
Steve 📲 (c) 206-769-9577 📧stevehill@windermere.com
Sandra 📲 (c) 206-271-7100 📧sbrenner@windermere.com
🔗 Brennerhill.com
Windermere Real Estate /FN
