In November of this year, Washington’s housing market continued its normal seasonal cooldown. And compared to last year, this month looked particularly cool, as 2024 had a particularly strong fourth quarter, which has NOT been repeated this year.
In the Northwest MLS, closed home sales were 10% below last November’s total. And pending sales, which provide some signal about next month’s sales, are actually up 3% over the same period last year.
On the supply side, the flow of new listings was almost identical, or only 1% lower, than in November last year. Finally, the month ended with 26% more active listings than last November, tilting the bargaining power in buyers’ favor.
These higher inventory levels are starting to put some downward pressure on prices, which fell $15,000 to a median of $650,000 for November residential home sales.
Now I will take a closer look at the four counties that comprise the greater Seattle area.
Closed sales fell 13% from last November, and none of the four counties were spared double-digit declines, led by an 18% drop in Kitsap County.
Average sales prices showed roughly no gains across the region: down 1% in King; 8% higher in Kitsap; 1% higher in Pierce and 4% lower in Snohomish County. It now seems clear that inventory growth this year has reduced price increases to around 0 for the time being.
Looking ahead, pending Sales fell just 2% across the region in November, mainly due to a 6% decline in Snohomish, while the other three counties remained essentially flat.
On the supply side, the four-county Seattle region had 30% more active listings than at the end of November 2024. I previously highlighted that this growth rate is slowing, but that slowdown itself may have stalled: October had a nearly identical 31% inventory growth rate.
This continues to bode well for buyers, who are now ready to approach the new year with more inventory and bargaining power than they’ve seen in years. Anyone who can get house hunting in between Christmas gift shopping this month will be well positioned to find a bargain, even now that the Black Friday deals have disappeared from the shops!
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