Seattle weekly wrap-up: rates drop to the mid-6s!

The big news this week is mortgage rates have gone from the low 7s to mid-6s (suffering from rate whiplash yet??). This is on the heels of our slowest October in eleven years, in terms of buyers putting Seattle homes under contract. So will lower rates bring buyers back? I don’t think we’ll see them back before the end of the year. Regardless of rates and buyers’ concerns about their job stability, it is November and the market is always very slow this time of year. That said, sellers are likely very motivated. Also, consider that of the 1,700 active listings in Seattle, 20%, 332, are new construction. You can bet those developers are likely motivated to close out some homes before the end of the year. Plus RedfinNow is shutting down and Redfin is going to blow out their unsold homes. So there might be some opportunity for brave, aggressive buyers.

We saw 170 new listings last week, down 22% week-over-week. Meanwhile, buyers put 149 homes under contract, the same number as the week before.

Note that even though we’re seeing new listings outnumber homes going under contract, the number of active homes has been declining week-over-week. We’re seeing more and more sellers trying to rent instead, or taking their places off the market until the new year.

What caught our eye? Nothing did! But let me know if I missed a good listing.

Heads up, the last home-buying class of the year is December 6th!