Conditions are perfect for the real estate market in Seattle to cool some

Services report, noting that it’s been quite a season for Seattle’s market.

“The housing market close to the job centers has gone from a historic extreme-frenzy market in the spring down a few levels of hotness to a strong level of pending sales activity for new listings.”

Which is true; the Seattle 2018 real estate “season” came in like a lion and seems to be going out like a lamb: Housing inventory continued to improve in September, while the pace of sales has slowed in many counties.

Some balance has been restored to the market — across the NWMLS system, last month ended with 2.56 months of supply of single-family homes and condos. And though that’s not perfect (analysts prefer somewhere between four and six months of supply for a truly balanced market between sellers and buyers) it’s the highest level since February 2015, when brokers reported 3.56 months of inventory.

“This is a more traditional yearly market cycle taking the place of the unusually overheated real estate market of the past several years,” said John Deely, principal managing broker at Coldwell Banker Bain, in the NWMLS report.

“Given there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight related to the region’s job growth, with employees moving here and not enough units being built to accommodate them, we believe this market normalization will continue.”

In a normal market, October marks a steep drop-off in inventory as winter doldrums settle in; at this same time last year, analysts were also wondering if Seattle was going through a cool-down.

Scott’s advice then was about the same as it is now: “October will be the best month for selection and availability until late February.”

Get in while the getting’s good, Seattle buyers.

By Zosha Millman, SeattlePI