May 2023 Market Blog – The Area-Wide May Real Estate Market
Brokers should be aware of these numbers and their relation to the national, state, county, city, and community data points. Broker should be able to easily communicate these numbers and current winning strategies that bring good results.
Both pending sales and closed sales reached their highest volume in months. All but four of the 26 counties show year-to-date price gains, including 12 counties with double-digit increases. Northwest MLS cover 26 of the 39 counties in Washington.
All data is a summary of the NWMLS June Press Release.
Area-wide single-family homes and condominiums:.
New Listings: 9,247 new listings during May showing a decline from a year-ago.
Active Listings: 9,079 active listings, up 3.2% from a year ago
Months of Inventory: Buyers have 1.44 months of supply including all price ranges.
Median price: Median price of $615,000 is down 6.8% from a year-ago, but it’s up nearly 10.4% since January.
Pending Sales: 8,120 pending sales was down 23% from a year ago, but up nearly 13.8% from April’s total.
Closed Transactions: 6,310 closed transactions last month, was down 30.6% from a year earlier, but up 18.2% when compared to April.
Cash Offers: We’re seeing approximately 20% of offers are cash on well-priced homes.
Mortgage Rates: According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage jumped to 6.79% from 6.39% the first week of May. One year ago, the FreddieMac reported mortgage rate was 5.22%.
Percent of List Price: Due to limited inventory, more than one-third of properties are sold above their list price, especially those homes that first-time buyers can afford to buy.
Sellers are luring buyers with incentives such as pre-inspections with work completed, offers of homeowner warranties, sellers paid closing costs and interest rate buydowns.
King County Single Family Homes median SOLD price (no condo’s) was $816,750, an increase of 16.5% for 2023. The price increase is fueled by the limited inventory.
Snohomish County 0.88 months of inventory.
Pierce County 1.09 months.
King County 1.26 months.
Kitsap County 1.3 months.
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