You Can’t Fool The Market

As summer comes to a close, there begins some normalization in the housing market place. A good broker will tell you that if a property is over-priced, the market will adjust; which is to say that if a home is on the market 20-25 days, it's generally a price issue. For example, a home this month listed at $1.3M sold for $1.2M after 16 days. However, we are still seeing some sales prices increase 25-30% above list price; and that is typically because the home was inadvertently underpriced. With a dip in the temperature outside, we’re also seeing things moving a little slower in the market. Though here in Seattle, the market is still a hot seller's market, it's just not white hot.

A recent report from Zillow analyzed ROI potential in several US markets and saw a 15.5 percent rise in home value, year over year; and “Seattle sellers gained 53.1 percent or $185,000 on a… sale for a home in which they lived for an average of about nine years.” According to NWMLS reports, median home prices jumped $100,000 in King County in the month of July and though many are concerned with a housing bubble, the differences between today’s market and the burst from 2008 is that in our current market we have a huge number of new residents who are searching for that perfect new home, close to our booming job market. The demand is there, it’s just ebbing with homebuying season.