November 2018 Seattle Condo Market Report
The Seattle Condominium market appears to be weathering the slowing housing storm that’s affecting our region. Although sales activity has moderated, values continued to outpace 2017 levels.
The citywide Seattle condo median sales price in November rose 4.97% over the same period last year to $452,500. Compared to the prior month, the median dipped by 4%, which is typical as our market seasonally tempers during the fourth quarter.
By neighborhood, the Capitol Hill, Queen Anne and NW Seattle (e.g. Ballard) areas realized gains in value compared to last November, while downtown, West Seattle and NE Seattle experienced declines (see table at bottom of post).
Historically, the housing inventory supply reduces during the year-end holidays and this November was no exception with the number of MLS listed Seattle condos for sale dropping 17.3% from October to 560 units. Though, that still represented 309% more listings than we had a year ago.
With fewer condo listings available, the inventory supply rate constricted to 2.6-months, keeping Seattle in a seller’s market for the time being. This is based on properties listed in the Northwest MLS and does not include all pre-sale new construction inventory, so the true supply rate is slightly higher.
Sales velocity slowed relative to last November by 6.6% to 212 units that went under contract (pending status), but improved by 8.7% compared to one month ago.
The number of closed condo sales took a tumble in November at 167 units, dropping 28.9% year-over-year and 14.4% from October.
As we close out the year, the numbers for December, our slowest month for real estate sales, will show further sluggishness for both sales activity and selling prices. Fortunately, if historical trends is any indication then listings, sales and prices should start trending back up by late January / early February.
Source: NWMLS. Some figures were independently compiled by SeattleCondosAndLofts.com and were not published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
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