June 2020 NWMLS Statistics

The market is heating up as we’re seeing the lowest interest rates from looking back as far as 1971 and lifestyle changes bringing about moves from urban areas into the suburbs and rural communities; people realizing they can work from home and have a need to not feel so cramped in their living spaces which seems to be accelerating as lockdown restrictions ease.

Older people trading down are moving to areas like Jefferson County (Port Townsend), Kittitas County (Suncadia) and Chelan County (Chelan and Wenatchee). Other move down buyers looking to stay closer to Seattle may find Mason and Thurston Counties doable. Several Central Washington counties are seeing very strong price growth like Kittitas (30 percent), Chelan (22 percent) and Grant (9.4 percent).

Agents with the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) added 10,709 new listings to the market last month (lagging only a little over 10 percent below last year’s 11,977); improving on May’s total by 838 listings (up 3.5 percent) and bringing the total listings at month’s end to 9,670. Last year we had 16,680 homes and condos for sale so we are way down; 42 percent from last year…we have a ways to go. Many hope the migrations to other favorable outlying areas like Bellingham, Bainbridge Island, Eastern Washington, Bend, Oregon and other recreational rich communities, now that people can work from home, will free up more inventory closer to the Seattle-Metro areas.

Pending sales outpaced new listing as brokers reported 11,916 mutually accepted agreements (up almost 15 percent from May’s 10,389 and up almost 3 percent from last year’s 11,573); and closed sales came in at 8,312 units (up over 39 percent from last Month’s 5,957 and down over 12 percent from last year’s 9,474)…still some work to be done there.

The month-over-month gains in pending sales, closed sales, and prices are a very good indicator that our housing market is very robust, as well as the Housing Recovery index reporting Seattle as one of the cities showing the greatest recovery. If you’ve thought about selling, this may be a great time to do so as indicators in Snohomish County alone have shown the pending sales are up significantly in price from the recent closed sales. Let Hewitt Property Group take care of ALL your real estate needs; contact us today!