Seattle Continues to Lead the Nation's Housing Market
Simply stating that the Seattle housing trend is slowing down, would be entirely misleading considering it has continued its 3rd consecutive month as the nation’s hottest real estate market. The city saw the largest price increase in single-family homes of any metro area in the United States. The typical house cost rose 10.4% to an average of $635,000, while the national average increase was 5.6%.
The early fall saw the start of this deceleration period in Seattle, which corresponds to the national trend of slower real estate during the winter months. While all areas of the housing market have been affected, the luxury sector experienced the biggest decrease in sales, with home prices soaring over 9.4% over last year. However, this so called ‘decrease’ still saw a record number of King County homes sell for over $1 million.
Any decrease in Seattle’s housing market must be taken with a grain of salt, simply due to the incredibly low inventory and increasingly high demand which has created a climate of urgency. The estimated turnaround time for selling property is only 3 weeks as opposed to the standard 4-6 months. In King County, 36,000 homes were sold in 2016 for a grand total of $2.1 billion – a trend that is sure to continue and increase in the new year.