Seattle weekly wrap-up: median price is up 14.6% since January (!)

Crazy last two weeks! We moved into our new (floating) home (before it was really ready) on July 1st and then hosted a Fourth of July party for a hundred friends ?. Then woke up hungover on July 5th and had NEAT Method Seattle organize our kitchen (as you can see we’re still missing our pantry doors! and door handles on the fridge…) I was very skeptical going in, but I’m now a believer. Everything in the kitchen just makes sense and we’ll likely have them organize our bathrooms and closets. Hit reply if you want an intro to Rachel, need me to convince your skeptical partner, or want more photos of just how organized every drawer is. It really is amazing!

We’ve also been busy at work – we have two clients under contract at Spire, represented a buyer and a seller closing at the Emerald, have a client under contract at the Newmark, another contingent on a Central District house, and handed off keys to buyers in Montlake Terrace and Bothell (yes, we do the suburbs too!)

But you’re likely more curious about the real estate market… The numbers from June are in and the median price hit $917,000 in Seattle, up 14.6% from the beginning of the year (!). Low inventory and just enough demand have been driving the median price up. Note we are still below the peak of $1m we saw last April and May when rates were in the 5s (they’re now back in the 7s!) My prediction is the median price will cool in the back half of the year but won’t get as low as $800k.

In terms of the weekly numbers, thanks to the Fourth of July we had two slow weeks for new listings, but not as slow as years past. Expect a bump in new listings this week (we’re bringing on two listings this week) and next (we’re bringing on one), then the summer slowdown will likely really set in.

The question on all our minds is – how are buyers going to react to rates hitting the 7s again? Will we see a pullback or is this the frustrating new norm?