November Favors Home Sellers
November surprised the real estate market with a strong favor for home sellers. The Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) released data on the month of November which showed a 7% year-over-year increase in pending sales. This increase across King, Pierce, and Snohomish County jumps to 9.2% when considering mutually accepted offers.
Meanwhile, the price of single-family homes and condos saw an increase of 3.5% from October to November of this year across all counties. This strong demand hit the market just as it appeared there might be reprieve for buyers in the area.
This strong November performance is the highest increase in pending sales since November 2016 when the housing market was incredibly strong. With a lack of inventory, brokers are having difficulty replenishing inventory to meet demand resulting in a 15% decrease in new inventory. The imbalance between new listings and pending sales resulted in supply falling to 1.58 months, the lowest system-wide level since last December.
It’s expected that the market slowdown over winter months, but buyer demand still looks strong. What will the market look like in the start of 2020? We’ll find out soon enough!