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Is 2019 the year for buyers of Seattle real estate?

Good news for buyers in Seattle! The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index recently indicated a slowdown in the steep rise of home prices in Seattle in the previous months. This has prompted real estate insiders to believe that 2019 could be the year of the buyer.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index is an indicator of the movement of residential home prices in specific cities or metro areas of the United States. It comes out with monthly reports based on a three-month moving average. For the Seattle area, it covered King, Pierce, and Snohomish.

Signs of cooling down

In September 2018, the average year-over-year price increase was at its lowest in three years, with Emerald City slowing down fastest more than anywhere else in the US. The price increase in the said metro area went down by 1.3% in the previous month.

By January 2019, home price increases will have been sluggish for five months straight, growing only by as much as 6.3%. This is less than half of their pace from a year ago.

Zillow also found in January that roughly 22% of real estate listings in November 2018 were being marketed at reduced prices. November saw the highest amount of price reductions in almost a decade.

Seattle has also not been seeing the kind of price increases that markets like San Francisco and Las Vegas are experiencing at 9.9% and 13.5%, respectively. In reaction to the less aggressive buying stance of many investors, a bigger number of sellers reduced their prices in 2018.

But that’s not to say that Seattle home prices are falling. They simply aren’t increasing as quickly as they have historically. Home prices in the said metro area remain firmly above the national average despite the cooling off of home values in the past five months here.

Proof of this is seen in the latest median list prices in Seattle, compared to that of the whole country. As of February 2019, the median list price in Seattle was $712,440. Homes here stay in the market 76 days on average. In contrast, Zillow puts the median list price for the entire US at $275,000, based on data from December 2018.

Also, even as the city is no longer registering steep spikes in its home prices, Emerald City is still a crowd favorite among real estate investors.

The year of the buyer

2019 is a good year to buy a property in Seattle, based on forecasts by think tanks and experts in the real estate industry. Observers believe that home prices will stay level throughout the year, compared to the double-digit increases recorded in 2016.

Moreover, there will be more balance between supply and demand, with the housing market seeing remarkable inventory growth. The Northwest Multiple Listing Service found that the number of homes for sale in King County increased over the past year, while the number of active listings doubled in November 2018.

Lastly, real estate insiders believe that there will be further price reductions from sellers. While the market remains competitive, gone are the days when sellers were guaranteed multiple offers just by pricing the home close to comparable properties, with buyers bidding well beyond the asking price.

If you’re ready to take advantage of these market trends, let us, the Metropolist Group, help you find the perfect home. Call us at 206-623-5118 or send an email to [email protected].

2019-04-22T00:00:00-07:00