June 2021 Housing Market Stats

Stacia Whatley owner of StaciaSellsHomes + Associates, here to bring you June's Housing Market Stats. May marked a month of new records for some Northwest MLS market indicators. Here’s the skinny on what's been going.


May was a month of record-setting highs and lows for some key housing market indicators tracked by Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The month-to-month decline was small (only 83 listings), but compared to 12 months ago, May’s inventory plummeted by 4,824 listings (down 46.6%). 
Months of inventory of homes and condominiums fell to just over two weeks (0.59 months) system-wide, which encompasses 26 of Washington’s 39 counties. Only March 2021 and December 2020 have been lower when both months ended with only 0.53 months of supply. 


Year-over-year price increases measured by percentages appeared to hit a new high with the median price on last month’s 9,374 closed sales soaring 30% from a year ago. A check of Northwest MLS data shows prices on the 8,011 single family home sales (excluding condos) that closed last month sold for 107.3% of the asking price. 


The summer months always produce the highest volume of sales activity. NWMLS Brokers added 11,922 new listings of single-family homes and condos during May. Compared to a year ago, the volume of new listings rose 20.8%. 
Record low interest rates and job gains continue to drive the market, along with focused lifestyle changes. In addition, rising home prices are prompting buyers to drive farther out to find affordable homes. 
2021 pending sales edged above the volume of new listings, with brokers reporting 11,969 mutually accepted offers. That number also out-gained the year-ago total of 10,389.

High demand kept supply depleted. 
“Low interest rates and easing of COVID-19 restrictions are bringing buyers out to take advantage of the market,” said James Young, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate at the University of Washington. When commenting on the challenges facing first-time buyers he noted, “Residential month’s supply (excluding condos) has continued to decline with less than two weeks of inventory in King, Kitsap, and Pierce counties, and slightly more than two weeks in the region. 

These are amazingly low levels of inventory. Coupled with continued low interest rates and eased borrowing criteria, rapidly rising prices reflect huge supply imbalances. Given these imbalances, first-time buyers have had almost no chance to take advantage of low interest rates unless they leave Seattle. Unfortunately for them, continued supply constraints along the I-5 corridor mean they are increasingly being left out of the market for the whole region. Only a decrease in demand will moderate house price trends.”

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