Current Real Estate Market

What's happening in the current Real Estate market

Current Real Estate Market The “Magic” Interest Rate to Motivate Sellers Many would-be buyers and sellers are sitting on the sidelines waiting for rates to drop before they decide to buy or sell their home. With roughly half of homeowners in the U.S. have 50% equity in their homes and more than 80% of them having a mortgage rate of 5% or less, it doesn’t make […]
Current Real Estate Market 2022 Recap As we finish 2022, in North King and South Snohomish counties, at the end of November the median sold price went up 2.5% from one year ago but down 14.4% from its high of $900k in March of this year. Price fluctuations vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, at different price points, and depending on the […]
Current Real Estate Market Our Current Game of Musical Chairs The recent rise in interest rates coupled with high inflation has caused the real estate market to slow and has sidelined both buyers and sellers:  Would-be buyers are waiting for rates and inflation to come back down (so they can afford more house or even get into one), and many sellers are waiting for prices […]
Current Real Estate Market Home Equity Gains This Past Year This past year home values across the nation rose sharply: The average equity gain in the U.S. was $64,000. In  Washington, it was much higher, a whopping $114,000. All totaled, U.S. homeowners gained $3.8 trillion in equity since the first quarter of 2021, a year-over-year gain of 32.2%. Wow! If you are interested in how […]
Community The Pivot of All Pivots… Pre-COVID, the ideal, “all the rage” office environment was a communal, “open concept,” shared-workspace office. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, there was a hard stop to this and and demand for shared spaces ground to a halt. Companies like WeWork who invested in shared workspaces hit hard times. For a developer who built […]
Current Real Estate Market Q1 2022 Western Washington Gardner Report First quarter real estate numbers are in for Western Washington! Here are a few key highlights: Inventory and sales volume levels are lower in most counties compared to one year ago Pending sales outpaced listings by a factor of 6.7. This means that houses sold 6.7 times faster than they came to market Prices continued […]
Current Real Estate Market Contract Signings Slide in February Across the U.S., pending home sales slid 4.1% month over month in February 2022 and 5.4% annually from last year. Why? In a nutshell, lack of inventory.  NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun states it eloquently: “One cannot buy what is not for sale.” It is important to note that these numbers quoted by NAR are […]
Current Real Estate Market 8 Seattle Suburbs With the Biggest Price Increases This past year prices rose an average of 15.1% in Western Washington. However, price growth has not been evenly distributed either geographically or across price points. For example, consider these 8 Seattle Suburbs that had home price increases ranging from 30-100% year-over-year. Yes, you read that correctly: One of these areas actually DOUBLED in price […]
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Current Real Estate Market Housing As an Employee “Perk” Wow! That is my reaction to the article below. Shocking, but a smart way to attract talent. This Florida employer bought two lots with plans to build homes for employees. They are offering the homes as a reward to two of their employees who will randomly drawn to win. This makes sense! Employees might be […]
Current Real Estate Market Top 10 Predictions for 2022 Last year we saw huge increases in home price appreciation. In Snohomish County, prices went up 22% overall in Snohomish County. Some areas saw even larger increases, especially on the eastside. To help you know what is coming this year, watch Matthew Gardner’s video here. For the condensed version of Matthew’s Top 10, here you […]
Current Real Estate Market Q4 Gardner Report for Western Washington The final Q4 numbers are in! Matthew Gardner’s analysis of the Western Washington housing market is complete. Here are some key highlights: The ratio of pending sales (demand) to active listings (supply) showed sales outpacing listings by a factor of 5.2. High buyer demand is putting upward pressure on prices. Home prices rose 15.1% compared […]
Current Real Estate Market Reasons to Sell your Home During the Holidays If you think selling your home during the holidays is a bad idea, think again! Here are 10 Reasons why it makes sense to sell now before inventory increases in the spring. To demonstrate what this video says, I recently listed a home for sale (on 12/16) in Shoreline. There was little else for sale […]
Current Real Estate Market Investors, Inventory, and the Home Purchase Market As you probably have probably heard, home inventory levels are at record low levels. There is a complex set of reasons why this has happened, some of them dating back to the housing crash of 2007+ when home builders went bankrupt and never came back. Recently, in Q3, more investors entered the housing purchase market, […]
Current Real Estate Market Interest Rates: History, Influences, Predictions Curious about mortgage rates? In this video, Matthew Gardner shares his perspective on how rates are set, what affects them, and where industry experts predict rates to go this next year. As a general rule of thumb, good financial news is bad for interest rates. https://www.windermere.com/…/10-25-2021-housing-and…
Current Real Estate Market Homeowner Equity Soars Here’s a great article by The Seattle Times that discusses homeowner equity gains over the past year. Key points: Home price appreciation is expected to slow this next year, CA, WA, and ID saw the biggest equity price increases this past year, and many who wish to purchase are finding it more and more difficult to […]
Current Real Estate Market Monday with Matthew: How Do Buyers & Sellers Feel About the Housing Market? This week, Matthew discusses Fannie Mae’s “Home Purchase Sentiment Index” that discusses how buyers and sellers feel about the housing market. In a nutshell, the report says that currently most people do not think it is a good time to buy. Why? There are not enough homes available to purchase Rapidly rising prices are scaring […]
Current Real Estate Market Q2 2021 Western Washington Gardner Report Matthew Gardner, Windermere’s Chief Economist, shares second quarter 2021 housing statistics. To see his blog, click here.  Highlights from Matthew: Q2 Listing activity was 42.8% higher thanQ1 San Juan, King, Whatcom, and Snohomish counties saw significant sales increases Home prices rose 31.4% compared to a year ago. The average sale price was $734,567—another all-time record. […]
Current Real Estate Market Why Homebuyers Are Struggling in This Market Here is a great Forbes article that gives a nice overview of the challenges buyers (especially first-time home buyers) are having in today’s strong seller’s market. The buying strategies discussed are sound and common in our area. While this is great information, the author doesn’t mention the importance of communication. I cannot overstress the importance […]
Current Real Estate Market Monday with Matthew: Why Home Prices Have Risen So Much In this month’s episode of “Monday with Matthew,” Matthew Gardner digs into the data on inflation rates and mortgage payments to explain the significant increase in home prices over the past thirty years. He also discusses the topic of a housing “bubble.” Good stuff!!
Current Real Estate Market May 2021 Was Record Breaking This past month was one for the record books: Record increases in the median price year-over-year, record low inventory, and record low interest rates. It was (and still is) a “perfect cocktail” for sellers and a “perfect storm” for buyers. For a good article about the current Seattle real estate market, click the link below: […]