Seattle weekly wrap-up: homes going under contract down 20%!

We saw just under 300 new listings last week in Seattle (down 3% w-o-w), but the real news is that the number of homes going under contract was down over 20% to just 152.

This makes last week the fourth slowest week of the year so far. This is surprising given that we usually have slow weeks after a long weekend, but we didn’t have a long weekend. What we did have was mortgage rate (and stock market) volatility with buyers seeing mortgage rates above 7% early in the week and rates in the high 6s the rest of the week. If buyers continue to hit pause, sellers will start sweating more than they already are (last week we saw 200 price reductions, and of all active listings in Seattle, over a third have had price reductions), likely creating opportunities for buyers willing to brave these, hopefully, temporarily high rates. Of course, savvy buyers know to ask the seller to buy down their rate and they know they can refi down the line if/when rates drop.

Want to be a savvy buyer? Check out our home buying class this Wednesday at 4 pm via Zoom.

Of those 300 new listings – what caught our eye? This View Ridge remodeled midcentury featured in Dwell, a North Capitol Hill midcentury on the market for the first time in 57 years, a modern NW contemporary in Wallingford, a huge Pioneer Square loft, new construction in Blue Ridge, and I don’t often highlight craftsmans, but I dig the remodel on this one! Though my fave listing is likely this $4m home in Enatai.

…I’m very curious to see how many homes go under contract this week!