Let’s check up on what’s happening with the Seattle-area housing market in early 2023, shall we?
Search Results for: "Puget Sound Counties"
Plunging mortgage rates held off a Seattle home price crash
It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a look at our affordability index charts for the counties around Puget Sound, so let’s have a look at those charts…
Around the Sound: King County alone in price drops and big inventory gains
I promised an updated look at June data for the outlying counties, so let’s have a look at that. Here’s the latest update to our “Around the Sound” statistics for King, Snohomish, Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston, Island, Skagit, and Whatcom counties.
King County is the only place where prices are declining, and it also has the largest increase in active listings compared to a year ago. On the flip side, pending sales were up the most in King County, and it had one of the smallest declines in closed sales (sales rose in Skagit though). In most of the other Puget Sound counties, sales are declining, and listings are either falling or not increasing by much, and prices are rising.
Low affordability may be why sales are stalling out
By popular request, let’s take a look at our affordability index charts for the counties around Puget Sound.
As of August, the affordability index has bounced up slightly from its May low (which was the lowest point since nearly a decade ago in July 2008), but still sits at the very low level of 85.0.
For context, eighty-six percent of the 306 months on record back through 1993 have had a higher affordability index than what we had in August 2018…
Around the Sound: King County sees the biggest gains in listings
We know that inventory is growing in King County, but let’s look at broader Puget Sound area. Now that May is over, let’s update our “Around the Sound” statistics for King, Snohomish, Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston, Island, Skagit, and Whatcom counties.
The biggest gains in new listings and active inventory were in King County. Snohomish and Pierce also saw some decent increases, but further out it’s more of a mixed bag, with some counties still seeing declining listings and inventory.