Seattle Condo Market Update – September 2015
Seattle’s condominium market continued to outperform 2014 as reflected in year-over-year improvements in sales activity and prices last month.
The Seattle citywide condominium median sales price rose 23.59% over last September to $361,500, though it dipped 15.9% from the prior month.
Phase 1 new construction closings at Insignia continued to push the median price up, particularly in the downtown area. Contemplating just resale condo sales, the citywide median price was $328,000, a year-over-year increase increase of 12.1%, which is still considerable.
With the exception of NW Seattle, median sale prices rose throughout the city with downtown, Queen Anne / Magnolia and West Seattle areas exhibiting double digit increases (see chart at bottom).
Condo inventory remained below 2014 levels but has been on the uptick with 307 MLS listed Seattle condos for sale in September. That’s 29.3% fewer than last year but 5.8% more than August.
However, we do anticipate inventory to drop as we close out the year with November and December historically having the fewest number of active listings for sale.
The inventory supply rate rose to 1-month of supply, although that still leaves Seattle in a tight sellers market as buyers are well aware of. A rate under 3-months of supply is a sellers market.
A normal, balanced market occurs when we have between 3-6 months of supply, which we’re not likely to see for a few years considering the lack of new inventory in the pipeline, the time frame lag for new construction and consistent buyer demand.
The number of unit sales rose 4.6% over last year to 316 pending units (sellers that accepted offers), but the market is showing its cyclical slowdown with a decline of 6.2% from August.
The number of closed condo sales outpaced last year rising 23.3% to 290 units, of which 67 were at Insignia. If it wasn’t for Insignia we would have experienced a drop of 4.7% in closed units compared to last September.
Source: NWMLS. Some figures were independently compiled by SeattleCondosAndLofts.com and were not published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
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