Eastside weekly wrap-up: sellers reflect the slow market with 159 price drops

You’d think we’d open with mortgage rates this week but the related number that jumped out to me is that we saw 159 price drops on the Eastside this past week which was about 19% of the active inventory. This shouldn’t be surprising given that mortgage rates crossed 8% last week and sellers are trying anything to entice buyers to purchase their homes before the holidays. Though 112 sellers put their homes on the market this past week with similar hopes. Active inventory declined slightly to 819 active listings but this drop was driven by 54 listing cancellations than buyer activity.

Buyers continue to disappear! Only 99 homes went under contract this week, the lowest since the last week of February. Buyer hesitation also continues to be unsurprising given the ever-climbing interest rates. It’s tough for buyers to get off the sidelines even though there’s a distinct lack of competition and more inventory than we’ve seen for quite some time.

Only a handful of homes stood out this week, the first being a Japanese-style mid-century home in the Newport Hills neighborhood of Bellevue with all of it’s original finishes. For the opposite end of the spectrum, an under-construction new home with modern finishes and skylights everywhere near downtown Bellevue. The best marketing remarks of the week go to this house in Kirkland – “If James Bond built a house for Frank Sinatra…”!