Seattle Condo March 2016 Market Update
Seattle’s condo market exhibited another stellar month in March. Median sale prices continued to rise amongst robust sales activity.
The citywide Seattle condo median sale price for March was $380,000, a 15.85% bump over the same period last year. Though, that was 3.4% below February’s median.
All neighborhoods (MLS areas, see table below) experienced double-digit increases in year-over-year median sale prices. Capitol Hill led with a 32.6% increase, West Seattle was up 28.8%, Northeast Seattle at 28.3% and downtown improved 24.8%.
Seattle’s condo inventory level remained low. There was a slight 4% seasonal increase in the available condo units for sale in March compared to February, though we had 18% fewer units for sale compared to last year.
Further, with greater sales activity volume, the inventory supply rate dipped lower, down to 0.7 months of supply. The supply rate is a metric used to identify market conditions. A seller’s market environment exists when we have less than 3 months of inventory supply. So, at 0.7 months, we continue to be in an extremely tight seller’s market.
For a balanced, or normal market, we would need between 3 to 6 months of supply, while a buyer’s market is reflected with having more than 6 months of supply.
Seattle condo’s market has been under seller market conditions since January 2013 and it is not likely to change over the next few years. Other than the four current condos under construction (Insignia, Luma, Gridiron and Hendon), there are no other imminent condo developments on the horizon.
The number of pending condo sales increased last month with 352 units going under contract, up 11% over last March and a sizable 25.7% jump over February.
With fewer units available and a greater number of sales, competition among buyers remained fierce.
Closed condo sale transactions increased to 268 units, 32% more than a year ago and 13% more than last month.
The outlook as we head into summer, as well as the remainder of the year, is pretty much the same as we’ve been experiencing. With limited available inventory, continued low interest rates, pent-up buyer demand…don’t expect Seattle’s condo market to change in the foreseeable future.
As for new construction, there’s only about 275 under-construction units still available for purchase in the Seattle metro area. Beyond that, there are no new deliverable units in the pipeline for several years.
Update: A Canadian developer just announced plans for a new condominium tower in the Denny Triangle area, a 40-story tower called Nexus. They’re expecting to break ground later this year, so we’re likely looking at a 2018/2019 completion date.
If you’re looking at new construction properties, you may only have few more months remaining before your options dry up with Insignia now over 90% sold and Luma surpassing the 50% mark, and both projects are eyeing completion this summer. Contact us to learn more about new construction condos.
Source: NWMLS. Some figures were independently compiled by SeattleCondosAndLofts.com and were not published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
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