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October market stats were published by the NWMLS today. Home prices were basically flat from September, and inventory dropped a bit but was up dramatically from 2017. Sales continued to slip from last year as well. September’s year-over-year listing growth was an all-time record at 68 percent, but October’s 86 percent blew that out of the water.
The NWMLS hasn’t published their press release yet so let’s just get right to the data.
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):
| October 2018 | Number | MOM | YOY | Buyers | Sellers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Listings | 4,873 | -6.5% | +86.1% |  |
 |
| Closed Sales | 2,052 | +11.9% | -15.9% | |
|
| SAAS (?) | 1.29 | -25.5% | +24.8% | |
|
| Pending Sales | 2,295 | +2.3% | -16.8% | |
|
| Months of Supply | 2.37 | -16.5% | +121.3% | |
|
| Median Price* | $670,999 | +0.4% | +6.5% | |
|
Here’s the graph of inventory with each year overlaid on the same chart.
Inventory fell seven percent from September to October, and was up 86 percent from last year. Before this year, the highest year-over-year inventory gain was 61.3 percent way back in February 2008. The number of homes on the market was at its highest October level since 2011.
Here’s the chart of new listings:
New listings were up five percent from a year ago, but began the usual seasonal decline month-over-month.
Here’s your closed sales yearly comparison chart:
Closed sales rose 12 percent between September and October. Last year over the same period closed sales dropped three percent. Year-over-year closed sales were down 16 percent.
Pending sales were up two percent from September to October, and were down 17 percent year-over-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).
For the last few months we’ve been charting new territory in year-over-year inventory growth.
Here’s the median home price YOY change graph:
Year-over-year home price changes edged down from September to October.
And lastly, here is the chart comparing King County SFH prices each month for every year back to 1994 (not adjusted for inflation).
October 2018: $670,999
July 2007: $481,000 (previous cycle high)
The Seattle Times hasn’t posted their story yet. I’ll probably update this post when they do.