Seattle weekly wrap-up: quiet week for rates and buyers
Finally, a boring week for mortgage rates! They started the week at 6.62% and ended at 6.63% with almost none of the volatility we’ve come to expect. However, lower rates didn’t bring buyers back as buyers put just 128 homes under contract, down 14% week-over-week and well below last year (last year at this time buyers put 282 homes under contract!) Though, Spire is reporting 8 condos pending in 3 weeks which is remarkable since only 19 condos went pending across all of downtown, Belltown and Denny Triangle in October. On the blog, we looked at another strategy for buyers looking for lower rates – seller financing and assumable mortgages, mapping out the homes offering either (just hit reply if you want an updated list.)
Last week the layoff talk continued with now Amazon supposedly looking at reducing their headcount by 10,000 people. There’s no doubt Amazon’s hiring freeze is putting a chill on our real estate market. So if they do any layoffs it could put our market in a deep freeze. Needless to say, November, December and likely January will be very quiet months for real estate as Amazonians will be on pins and needles waiting to hear what’s going on. However, the Seattle Times has a great chart putting the local tech job cuts we’ve seen so far in perspective; we’re not even back to 2021 levels yet.
As for sellers, they put nearly 200 homes on the market last week. I wasn’t expecting to see so many new listings, but sellers are likely listing last week, instead of this coming week when everyone is on vacation. Of those new listings, my faves are this Matthews Beach midcentury and this new home in View Ridge. And midcentury fans, don’t miss this one in Wenatchee.
Have a good Thanksgiving!
We’re certainly thankful to be back in our home after rebuilding it after a fire last year and thankful for all the great clients we’ve had the good fortune of helping buy and sell this year.
