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September market stats were published by the NWMLS today. The NWMLS press release has not been published yet, so we’ll take a look at that tomorrow.
NWMLS monthly reports include an undisclosed and varying number of
sales from previous months in their pending and closed sales statistics.
Here’s your King County SFH summary, with the arrows to show whether the year-over-year direction of each indicator is favorable or unfavorable news for buyers and sellers (green = favorable, red = unfavorable):
| September 2016 | Number | MOM | YOY | Buyers | Sellers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Listings | 3,699 | +8.2% | +8.7% |  |
 |
| Closed Sales | 2,517 | -9.8% | +6.5% | |
|
| SAAS (?) | 1.22 | +1.1% | +12.1% | |
|
| Pending Sales | 2,921 | -8.6% | +6.1% | |
|
| Months of Supply | 1.47 | +19.9% | +2.1% | |
|
| Median Price* | $538,000 | -2.2% | +9.7% | |
|
After a month when everything was moving in sellers’ favor, September was much more of a mixed bag. Listings saw their largest year-over-year increase since May 2014, pushing months of supply up slightly as pending and closed sales both fell from August.
Here’s your closed sales yearly comparison chart:
Closed sales fell ten percent from August to September, but were still up 6 percent from a year earlier.
Pending sales fell nine percent in September, but were also up 6 percent year-over-year.
Here’s the graph of inventory with each year overlaid on the same chart.
Listings are up nine percent from a year earlier and 110 percent from the December 2015 low. Last year listings fell dramatically between September and December, it will be interesting to see what the next few months holds this year.
Here’s the supply/demand YOY graph. “Demand” in this chart is represented by closed sales, which have had a consistent definition throughout the decade (unlike pending sales from NWMLS).
Supply moved back to the buyer’s side of the chart, but demand is still on the seller’s side.
Here’s the median home price YOY change graph:
Prices were up from a year earlier by about the same as they were last month—ten percent.
And lastly, here is the chart comparing King County SFH prices each month for every year back to 1994 (not adjusted for inflation).
September 2016: $538,000
July 2007: $481,000 (previous cycle high)
The Seattle Times hasn’t posted their article yet. I’ll most likely post some kind of reporting roundup tomorrow with that and any other local stories about the September data.
Here’s this month’s article from the Seattle Times: Seattle home prices slow their climb, but shortage of inspectors raises anxiety