SEATTLE — Puget Sound’s housing market is heating back up again just when you thought the pendulum was slowly swinging back in favor of home buyers.
On Wednesday, Managing Broker Kristin Frosaker with Windermere showed Q13 News around a North Seattle home on the market for around $1.8 million.
Frosaker is expecting the newly built luxury home to sell sooner than later with the market heating up at a time when it’s usually slower.
“We are calling it in the industry the November surprise because usually this time of year we have agents checking out, it’s the holiday I am out, but this year we are picking up the pace,” Frosaker said.
Frosaker said multiple offers are happening again and the reason is that inventory is at an all-time 6 year low.
She says in November there were about 1.5 months of inventory on the market, a normal balanced market has about 6 months.
“We are back down near record low inventory levels,” said Zillow Economist Jeff Tucker.
Tucker said there are about 40 percent fewer homes in the Seattle Metro on sale right now compared to the same time last year.
Places like Pierce County are even more competitive.
For example, there were 1,760 homes on the market this October compared to 3,000 in October of 2018.
“If you are sitting on the sidelines hoping a bunch of affordable homes will be coming on the market soon, I don’t know what to tell you,” Tucker said.
What happens in King County and Pierce County matters for the rest of the state.
“We basically start the trend and we see it elsewhere in Eastern WA and what not,” Frosaker said.
The new trend is not anything like 2015’s frenzy, but Zillow predicts the serious cool down that many were expecting next year is not going to happen.
They also said despite predictions of a mild recession in 2020, the company is now predicting there will be no recession next year.
