It’s Friday, let’s sweep! | #’s we should know

Seattle (based on Residential and Condominium report):

Inventory rose to its highest level since the spring of 2014 (May 2014 or 42 months). At the end of June 2018 there were 1,246 Seattle single family and condominium homes for sale, up 73.54% from the same time a year ago (718 June 2017).

Pending Sales for the month of June 2018 were 1,118 down 13.95% from 1,274 in June 2017 (page 8).

Both of these statistics indicate a shift in the market, but we are a far way away from a buyer’s market as evidenced by:

* Median closed sales price is up 8% from a year ago (page 1)

* 53% of properties that sold, sold for more than the asking price (page 3)

* 79.2% of the properties that sold had 15 days or fewer on the market (DOM) (page 5)

* Months’ Supply of inventory is 1.1 (page 1) 

Part of the shift is seasonally. It takes sellers longer to prepare their homes for sale, than it takes buyers to become buyers. The result is higher demand relative to supply early in the year, easing in the second half of the year. The current trends are beyond seasonality and are the result of more sellers coming on the market. Specifically, in the three months ended June 30, 2018 (April, May, June 2018) there were 4,183 new listings taken compared to 3,870 for the same period in 2017. That is an additional 313 listings. (historical data, page 8)

The seasonal trends can be seen on the page below that shows the percentage of sold properties that sold for more than the list price. The percentage rises Jan through April and then decreases and flattens out for the remainder of the year.