In Seattle, we had a significant number of more houses come on the market and sold, compared to in Bellevue. We are seeing more homes come on the market, with less availability, on the east side than in Seattle.

Here is last month’s market update – Seattle Real Estate Market Update August 2021. And below is the latest update for the Seattle real estate market:

Video Transcript:

Hey y’all. Zach McDonald, your real estate agent with Real Property Associates, and this is my Seattle Real Estate Market Update for October 2021.
As is typical for these updates, we’re going to talk about a client story, we’re going to talk about the market stats, and we’re going to talk about some applications for you, whether you are a home buyer or seller.
Quick FYI, we’re looking at stats from September 2021. We’re looking back at the stats from the previous month. It’s the beginning of October. So, getting you these stats right hot off the press.

We are starting to incorporate Bellevue a little bit into this market update so that you can see and comparing contrast between Seattle and Bellevue, the two more prominent cities here in the Seattle region if you want to call it. It’s still generally dwarfed by Seattle itself, as a lot more homes and people live in Seattle proper, but I want to continue to incorporate Bellevue into these updates so you can see, compare and contrast, the differences between living on the west side and living over on the east side of Lake Washington.

We’ll start this update off with a story, just like we do all the other ones. And this month I want to feature the Roberts family. They recently purchased a house with me in Linwood, which is just north of Seattle in Snohomish County. And they were referred to me by some past clients, the Emmnets, who purchased a house six years ago in Mill Creek.

As I remember correctly, we met originally, the Emmnets and I, met at an open house and we helped them with their purchase, became friends. We got to attend their wedding. So, it was a really fun story of going from a client to a friend, and then here getting to be referred to family of theirs. Emmnets, if you’re watching this video, thank you so much again for the connection to the Roberts. I know they had a great experience and I’m super, super grateful for you guys.

Now let’s jump into the stats, which is why most of you are here. Again, we’re going to start to talk about Bellevue a little bit, just so you get a flare for what’s going on on the other side of the lake. Seattle itself, $832,000 median sales price in September. Up 4.1%, year-over-year. Bellevue, blowing it out of the water. $1,814,000. So, 43.5% up year-over year and more than double the medians sales price in Seattle. And a lot of the east side is considerably more expensive. If you’re looking at places like Redmond or Sammamish or Issaquah. Pretty much anywhere you go on the east side is going to be more expensive than looking in Seattle.

And I don’t think that’s going to change. I think it’s going to continue to be more expensive there and it was previously. But over the past few years, Seattle has been the one we’re talking about. Seattle, Seattle, Seattle, Seattle. But I think it’s more and more important here to emphasize what’s going on on the east side, because there’s a continual move over there and the competition continues to turn up over there where it’s not quite as hot in Seattle.

And I think it’s important to note that if we’re looking at King County and we’re looking at the east side of Lake Washington and the west side of lake Washington, Seattle makes up most of the west side of Lake Washington. Seattle is a large part of King County. And in Seattle, we had a significantly larger number of houses come on the market and a significantly larger number of houses sold than we did in Bellevue and the rest of the east side.

For example, if we look at Seattle, we had 706 listings at the end of the month, compared to 47 listings at the end of the month in Bellevue. Which is, 0.4 months of supply in Bellevue and 2.2 months of supply in Seattle. So, quite a bit more supply, which is why we’re not seeing as much craziness with offers in Seattle.

Seattle, just over 4% above asking price, 4.1% above asking price last month. Whereas we saw 8.6% above asking price in Bellevue. And pending sales, 974 in Seattle versus 124 in Bellevue. And same thing with closed sales, 867 closings versus 133 in Bellevue. So again, a substantial amount of activity happening in Seattle, a lot more people in the city versus over in Bellevue, which historically it was a suburb, is now trying to position itself as more of a twin city type of city here in the Seattle area.

Countywide, we saw about 10% up in King County and in Snohomish County. We saw 19% up year over year. If you want to hear more and dive into the stats a little bit more in the Seattle Bellevue region and get a little bit more specific, I have two different updates, which I’ll link up below. One to the King County market update for the month and also one to the Snohomish County market update, if you want to get a little bit more of the countywide stats.

And if we look at interest rates, because I think interest rates are important for us to look at too here on a monthly basis, last week, as of 10-3, we saw 30 year interest rates jump up over 3% again, 3.01 for 30 year fixed, which is still super, super low, but up a little bit from where we were sitting previously.

All of this to say, I think as far as application goes for you as a potential home buyer or seller, we are still in a super competitive market here. And I know in some places across the country, we’ve seen things start to slow down. And we’re really not seeing that here in the Seattle housing market. If anything, we’re seeing things start to pick up. In the summer, I was talking about how we’re starting to see a little less activity on listings, we’re starting to see a little bit less of that multiple offer frenzy. And it really was true. We were seeing a lot less of that.

But we’re seeing a resurgence here as we head into the fall. And I mentioned some of those contributing factors could have been people being on vacation and trying to enjoy maybe their first vacations, trips, travel away from their home in a year and a half or so. And specifically in the Seattle region, people really like to take advantage of the summer to go enjoy the more local spots and vacations, because the weather’s so much nicer during the summer in early fall than it is now that we’re into fall and starting to head towards winter. I hate saying that.

So, as a local, I know that and I try to take advantage of it too. So, I’m not surprised to see that we’re starting to see things pick up here in the fall. I do suspect that we will see a tightening of inventory to be head towards the late fall and early winter. I don’t suspect that November and December are going to be particularly hot months for new listings, but I do think we’re going to still see a lot of buyer activity and the competition all the way through the rest of the year and into 2022.

So, if you’re somebody looking to buy here in the next four to six months, I don’t suspect you’re going to find a better time to buy. I think we’re going to still see this competition level. I think we’re still going to see prices continue rising into the new year. So, I wouldn’t think waiting a couple months is going to make much of a difference for you as a buyer.

As a seller, if you need to sell right now or you’re moving out of the area, please don’t feel bad about selling. This is not a bad time to list your house. A few months ago, I was talking with people about, “Ooh, let’s think about this.” Right? If they’re not in a hurry or maybe they could sell in the spring. “Hey, let’s think about this a little bit more and maybe let’s try to time it a little bit.”

But as I’m seeing things shift year in the fall, I’m seeing a lot of that activity picking back up, which had disappeared and was causing houses to sell maybe at or below asking price. And now we’re starting to see houses a lot more commonly selling above asking price again and getting a lot of competition, especially for the good ones.

So, if you’re somebody considering selling this fall, I don’t think you’re in a bad spot. And I almost think that you’re in an advantage now, as we head into a place where we’re starting to see the amount of homes on the market decline, and I think that’s going to continue as we head into the fall and into the beginning of the winter.

So, you will have a little bit more prominent exposure than you would’ve had with more competition, especially as we get towards the sprint. So buyers, I think this is your opportunity to get started and to set yourself up for success, whether that’s now or even into 2022. Sellers, I think you’re in the driver’s seat here. So, if you’re ready to sell, you need to sell right now, go for it. If you’re going to wait a little bit, I think you’re still going to be a good spot come early 2022.

Thanks so much for watching my Seattle Real Estate Market update for October 2021. I hope you also enjoy getting a little bit of the Bellevue add on here, and I’m going to continue to keep Bellevue as part of these updates.


Have questions? Reach out to Zach McDonald or check out his website for more information.