Seattle’s real estate is one of the hottest markets in the nation. Seattle is leading the country in home price increases and we’ve almost doubled our home price growth over any other US city just in the last 11 months.
Seattle’s home prices increased nearly 14% over the last 12 months for single-family homes throughout the Seattle Metro area. This marks the 11th straight month that Seattle has been the nation’s hottest housing market. This figure is nearly double that of any other price increase across the nation for major metro cities.
In the past, Portland has taken that top spot but in late 2016, Seattle surpassed Portland, which remains a steady 7.6% growth.
This growth has come from a combination of historically low inventory and strong job and population growth. Seattle is growing at nearly 1000 people per day and we simply don’t have the housing to maintain that type of growth. Portland also has low inventory but the demand is shrinking.
Seattle’s boom in apartment construction keeps the rise of rental costs fairly balanced compared to the price of homes. Our rental hikes have been the slowest in five years because unlike single-family homes, apartments continue to be under construction and new developments are on the rise. This leaves an ever-growing number of buyers to fight for the same number of single-family homes, which is pretty much maxed out in the Seattle area. There are very few suburbs still adding subdivisions with new homes, primarily in places like Redmond, Sammamish, and Issaquah.
The last time Seattle saw this type of surge was back in 2006, prior to the housing bubble burst. Local prices grew more than 18% at times. The last time a housing market was as high as Seattle is right now was more than three years ago when San Francisco’s price growth was at 25%.
Nationally, home prices are up nearly 6% year over year, also the fastest growth in the past few years. Home values in the Seattle area are rising three times faster than historical averages. Although this is primarily in King County and specifically the Seattle Metro area, home prices continue to increase across the Puget Sound area from Pierce County to Snohomish County. In August, Seattle’s median home price was $730,000. On the Eastside, in cities such as Bellevue and Kirkland, the median home price was $853,000. A typical home in Snohomish County sells for about $455,000 and $313,000 in Pierce County for September 2017.
An experienced real estate broker can make your home buying experience more efficient, less stressful and significantly more successful in this competitive market. Please contact me for information or questions about your real estate needs and how I can assist you to achieve your goals.